
Class T1lDA_ 

Book . 3^ 
CoEyrightl^" 

COFfRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE WORLD'S LEADERS 

A NEW SERIES OF BIOGRAPHIES 

Edited by W. P. Trent 

Each, with portraits. Large i2mo. $1.75 net. « 

H. W. Boynton's The World's Leading 
Poets. — Homer, Virgil, Dante, Shakes- 
peare, Milton, Goethe. 

G. B. Rose's The World's Leading 
Painters. — Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, 
Titian, Rubens, Velasquez, Rembrandt. 

W. L. Sevan's The World's Leading 
Conquerors. — Alexander, Caesar, Charles 
the Great, The Ottoman Conquerors of 
Europe, Cortes and Pizarro, Napoleon. 

Other Volumes in Preparation. 
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 

34 West 33d Street NEW YORK 



Edited by W. P. Trent 



THE WORLD'S 
LEADING CONQUERORS 

ALEXANDER THE GREAT, C^SAR, CHARLES 
THE GREAT, THE OTTOMAN SULTANS, 
THE SPANISH CONQUISTADORS, NAPOLEON 



w 



Krt 



EVAN 



Doctor of Political Science, Munich ; Sometime Fellow of Columbia 
University j Professor of History, University of the South 



WITH PORTRAITS 




NEW YORK 

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 

1913 



ri' 



Copyright, 1913, 

BY 

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 



Published March. 1913 



THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESS 



i)Cl.A3462G0 



PREFACE 

The purpose of this volume is to present, in harmony 
with the popular character of the series of which it is a 
part, brief sketches of some of the most familiarly named 
men and well-known incidents in the history of Western 
Civilization. The plan upon which the work is constructed 
assumes that the broad highway of historical narrative must 
be followed, however attractive may be the deviations from 
it that offer themselves at almost every page. The story 
told here has been told often before and very frequently 
the telling of it has come from master hands of literature. 
It is no easy task to reproduce, in a condensed form, ma- 
terial so often handled under much more generous limita- 
tions of space than are possible in this work. An attempt 
has been made, however, to escape from the bald tabular 
method of recording historical happenings that is almost 
certain to make a continuous reading of text-book history 
an impossibility. This must be the apology for many 
omissions; not only had the temptation to generalize to be 
resisted in favor of what might be called a process of 
arbitrary selection but many things are passed over in 
order to give appropriate emphasis in treating the matters 
which do actually appear in a narrative. If the volume had 
aimed at comprehensiveness, many more conquests would 
necessarily have been described and the list of characters 
and leaders in large numbers of military campaigns could 
of course be almost indefinitely enlarged. One can say in 
any case that though such additions will naturally suggest 
themselves, there is less doubt as to the claim of the leaders 



VI PREFACE 

and events selected to appear with the prominence here 
assigned to them. If there has been a guiding principle in 
the selection, it may be found in the dehberate choice made 
of widely different periods of history. What may be called 
the group conquest is best illustrated in the case of the 
Ottoman Sultans and the Spanish Conquistadors, whereas 
the personal factor of the conqueror comes intensively for- 
ward in the chapters describing Alexander, Caesar, and 
Napoleon. Although the military aspect of the history of 
conquest has not been neglected, the other less visible ele- 
ments that ushered in great changes in history have not 
been omitted. In the preparation of the volume some at- 
tempt has been made to incorporate methods, points of view, 
and material that might not be accessible to those not con- 
cerned with the range of literature to which the ordinary 
student of history must appeal. It is only fair, therefore, 
to express my obligations to the following works. In the 
chapters dealing with ancient history, Beloch's " Griech- 
ische Geschichte," Delbriick's " Kriegs Geschichte," Kaerst's 
"Geschichte des Hellenismus " and Heitland's "History 
of the Roman Republic " have been largely used. In the 
chapter on Charles the Great, apart from Hodgkin's well- 
known volumes " Italy and Her Invaders," I have drawn 
upon Hartmann's "Geschichte Italiens," Ranke's "Welt 
Geschichte," Hauck's " Kirchen Geschichte " and Lavisse's 
" Histoire de France." For the Ottoman conquest Professor 
Jorga's two recently published volumes, " Geschichte des 
Osmanischen Reiches," have been found especially useful 
because the author is thoroughly acquainted with the au- 
thorities both Slavonic and Turkish not previously acces- 
sible to Occidental scholars. In the chapter on the Spanish 
Conquest use has been made of Payne's " History of the 
New World," MacNutt's " Life of Las Casas," and in the 



PREFACE vii 

narrative portion Garcia's " Character de la Conquista 
Espanola " has been found especially valuable. In the life 
of Napoleon, which offers the most serious difficulties in 
applying any accepted method of condensation, the well- 
known volumes of Fournier and portions of the " Histoire 
Generale " of Lavisse and Rambaud have been followed. 
Much help has been received from Professor W. P. Trent, 
the editor of the series; in the arduous task of revision, 
I wish to express my special obligations for time and work 
ungrudgingly given by my colleague, the Rev. S. L. Tyson 
of the University of the South, and I cannot pass over aid 
of the same kind received from Mr. Karl Schmidt of the 
New York Churchman. W L B 

Sewanee, Tenn., January, 1913. 



CONTENTS 

ALEXANDER THE GREAT page 

I Introductory 3 

II The Conquest of Greece 4 

III The Conquest of Persia 17 

IV The Invasion of India 34 

V Alexander's Empire .48 

C^SAR 

I Cesar's Beginnings 65 

II Alliance with Pompeius and Crassus ... 75 

III The Conquest of Gaul 84 

IV The Break with Pompeius and the Senate . . 102 

V C^sar Supreme . , . . . . . . 119 

CHARLES THE GREAT 

I Introductory . . . . . . . . 134 

II Consolidation of Rule 140 

III The Conquest of the Saxons 144 

IV Other Military Achievements 150 

V The Re-establishment of the Western Empire . 158 
VI Closing Years 166 

VII The Constitution of the Empire . . . .172 

VIII Carolingian Culture 180 

IX Economic Conditions 189 

X The Church . 198 

XI The Empire Without and Within . . . .203 

THE OTTOMANS 

I Osman . . . 213 

II Murad I . . 219 

III Bajesid 235 

IV Murad II 244 

V Mohammed II 253 

VI Selim and Souliman 272 

VII The Decline of the Ottomans 280 



X CONTENTS 

SPANISH CONQUERORS page 

I The Spaniard and the New World . . .293 

II The Career of Cortez 322 

III The Incas 350 

IV PiZARRO 357 

NAPOLEON 

I Early Years 37i 

II Italy and Egypt 379 

III The Fall of the Directory 388 

IV The First Consul 393 

V The Inauguration of the Empire .... 407 

VI At the Zenith of Power 418 

VII The Beginning of the End 426 

VIII Defeat and Exile 433 

IX The Napoleonic Regime 448 

INDEX 465 



PORTRAITS 

Charles the Great Frontispiece - 

Alexander the Great 3 i/' 

C^SAR ^S 

Mohammed II 253 

suleyman 276 

Cortez 322 

PiZARRO 357' 

Napoleon 371 "^ 



THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 




Alexander 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 



INTRODUCTORY 

Even in the critical time of the Persian invasion, the 
Greek peoples did not act together. The experiences of 
political individualism were too strong to be overcome, and 
the rooted tradition of local autonomy successfully resisted 
all attempts at larger plans of unity. It is not surprising 
that at a time when Greek thinkers regarded the development 
of the city-state as the highest field for human endeavor, 
Greek statesmen should have seen in the expansion of their 
native communities only a loose federation of subject cities 
to be exploited financially or for the purpose of adding 
increased military and naval strength, and not to be sub- 
jected to any formal centralized control. 

As time went on the old solidarity of the Greek city- 
state was sapped in the fight of social classes and political 
parties. Not only were Athens, Sparta, and Thebes fre- 
quently at war with one another but in each one of these 
states there were at work factions dominated by revolution- 
ary aims. Nothing was regarded as fixed except that the 
community must be self-sufiicing, it mattered little in what 
way. It seemed as if the troubled relations of Greek 
political life might go on indefinitely after the Persian 
invasion had been repelled. 

No Greek statesman for a hundred and fifty years, say 
roughly from 500 B.C. to 350 B.C., the most brilliant period 
of Greek history, regarded the kingdom of Macedon as 
anything but a negligible quantity. Macedon itself was a 
land that lay on the boundaries of the Hellenic world. Its 
people were held to be half Hellenic and half barbarian. 
Even to-day scholars are not at one on the question whether 

3 



4 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

the Macedonian dialect can be reckoned as properly be- 
longing to Greek speech. But it was this alien power that 
ended in bringing Greece to a kind of unity, a unity based 
on the force of arms. The most remarkable feature of 
this achievement lies in the fact that it was accomplished 
by one man, Philip of Macedon, who began his victorious 
career in 359 B.C. by repressing internal disturbances at 
home and by dealing effectively with his warlike neighbors, 
the Illyrians and the Thracians. The divisions in Greece 
gave him the opportunity of intervention there. He posed 
as the friend of the oligarchic party in various Greek com- 
munities, and made it his aim to oppose by diplomacy 
and by war the most important center of Greek democracy, 
Athens. The final struggle between the free states and the 
Macedonian monarchy took place at the battle of Chaeronea, 
August, 338 B.C. Philip won a decisive victory, because he 
had spent years in training a professional army that proved 
irresistible when it faced the best citizen soldiers of Athens, 
Thebes, and other smaller towns which, persuaded by the 
eloquence of Demosthenes, stood side by side in the defense 
of Hberty. Philip survived his victory only a short time, 
dying in 336 B.C. as the master of Greece and leaving to 
his son Alexander the heritage of his unique achievements. 



II 

THE CONQUEST OF GREECE 

Alexander's succession to the throne of Macedon seemed 
secured by his father Philip's sincere personal affection for 
him. His confidence in Alexander's ability, even in his 
son's early youth, was manifested in the assignment to 
him of the most responsible positions under his father's 
directions. Philip saw to it that his son should be carefully 
educated by placing him under the charge of Aristotle. 
Good reports must have come of his precocity, because 
Philip, while he was occupied in the siege of Byzantium, 
handed over to Alexander, then only sixteen years old, the 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 5 

administration of Macedon. Two years later, at the battle 
of Chaeronea, already mentioned as marking the downfall 
of Greek freedom, the youth was placed at the head of 
the division of the army which took the offensive at a 
critical part of the engagement, and it was through this 
important command that the questionable honor of striking 
the decisive blow in the defeat of the allied forces of 
free Greece was ungrudgingly conceded to him. 

Philip, unattractive as his character was in so many 
ways, stained as he was by savage passions and duplicity, 
at least performed conscientiously and effectively a father's 
part in preparing his son for the high position he was to 
take in the future. But the domestic situation of the 
Macedonian royal family was very far from being modeled 
on that described in the Odyssey as befitting the heroes 
and the leaders of men. Philip was lawless, and his numer- 
ous amours brought him both difficulty and notoriety, for 
in his irregular relations he did not scruple to disregard 
the customary conventions of Greek social life. On his 
return from his campaign for the subjugation of Greece, 
he became enamored of Cleopatra, a girl belonging to 
a distinguished Macedonian family, whose uncle, Attains, 
had a high place in the government. Cleopatra's position 
made it impossible for the King to offer her the place 
of a royal mistress; accordingly he made her a legitimate 
wife. Olympias and her son Alexander left Macedon, 
the queen returning to her home in Epirus, and the 
crown prince withdrawing to the traditional enemies of the 
Macedonians, the Illyrians. 

Philip, alarmed at the possibility of political combina- 
tions dangerous to his throne, came to an agreement with 
Alexander by which the latter was to return to his father's 
court at Pella, and Olympias' brother, the prince of Epirus, 
was induced to give up his hostility against his brother-in- 
law by a promise that he should have in marriage Philip's 
daughter, another Cleopatra. This alliance took place with 
great ceremony in the summer of 336, in the ancient royal 
town of Mg%^. Immediately after Philip prepared to set 
out to war with Persia. During the marriage festivities, 



6 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

however, he was assassinated by one of the members of his 
bodyguard, Pausanias, who in the confusion that followed 
almost succeeded in making his escape. Personal motives 
were assigned as grounds for this murder. Pausanias, it 
appears, had been deeply insulted by Attains, the uncle of 
Philip's young wife Cleopatra, and failing to get redress 
from the King, had so revenged on him his injured honor. 
It has been asked why, if this were the case, he did not 
strike at Attains rather than Philip. The probabiUty is 
that Philip's murder was inspired by a woman's indigna- 
tion. 

It was suspected immediately after the event that it 
was a case of " cherchez la femme," and all indications 
pointed to the outraged Olympias as the author of the 
murder. Alexander himself was thought to have been con- 
cerned in his father's death, for his own rights of succession 
were endangered by the influence of Cleopatra over Philip, 
an influence no longer merely sentimental, since she had 
recently given birth to a son. For this infant she would 
naturally strive to secure the Macedonian crown, and Alex- 
ander would be left to play the uncertain role of Pretender. 

Whatever happened at TE-gse, the fruits of the crime fell 
into Alexander's hands. He had been officially proclaimed 
his father's heir. Of Philip's sons he was the only one 
who had been tested on the battlefield, and he was also 
the one who had already shown capacity for leading the 
state in such crises as were bound to result from his father's 
murder. Philip's old companions in arms did not hesitate 
for a moment as to the proper choice of a ruler. Alex- 
ander was immediately recognized as king, and in the 
selection special weight was attached to the fact that his 
cause was urged by Antipater, one of Philip's closest friends 
and supporters. 

In this way the young prince's road to the succession was 
made easy; there were no disturbances, and care was also 
taken that there should be no competitors for the crown 
in the future, for the young son of Cleopatra was killed. 
But these grim measures to establish domestic peace did not 
stop here. There was another line of Macedonian princes. 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 7 

descended from the dethroned family of Lynkestes; there 
were two members of this house who might, by making 
awkward claims at unsuitable times, give much trouble. 
These two, Heromenes and Arrhabaeos, were both executed, 
on the ground that they had acted as accompHces with 
Pausanias in the conspiracy against Philip. They had a 
brother Alexander, whose life was spared only because he 
was a son-in-law of Antipater and had hailed Alexander 
as the new king immediately after the murder. 

By these deeds of violence, Alexander became the ac- 
knowledged master of Macedon, but the prospects outside 
his own country were anything but favorable. In Asia, 
Attains was at the head of the Greek cities. As the uncle 
of Cleopatra he would naturally be a most bitter enemy of 
Alexander. The uncertain future in Macedon was not lost 
on those Greeks whose liberties Philip had so recently de- 
stroyed, and whose acquiescence in the rule of Macedon was 
due only to their fear of the conqueror. Now they were 
ready to throw off the yoke, needing no excuse, but only 
an opportunity of rising, which the advent to the throne 
of an untried youth made most hopeful. A revolt broke 
out in Ambrakia and the Macedonian governor was driven 
out. Thebes was preparing for a similar outbreak, and 
there were plain signs of restlessness in ^tolia and in the 
Peloponnesus. 

Athens was the city to which all the opponents of Mace- 
donian rule looked for sympathy and support. The peace 
party there, who had gained adherents among the 
Athenians because of the moderation shown by Philip after 
his decisive victory at Chseronea, now lost ground because 
patriotic hopes sprung anew to life at the unexpected death 
of the man who had shattered the traditional system of 
Greek city autonomy. 

Every Greek regarded Macedon as an alien and semi- 
barbarous power, and one can sympathize with their view. 
Demosthenes was the leader of the patriotic party in Athens, 
and all attempts to undermine his popularity only put the 
partisans of Macedonia in a worse light in the eyes of 
the Athenians. Whenever he was judicially attacked he 



8 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

came out of the trial in triumph. Besides, the personal 
ascendancy of Demosthenes protected the minor politicians 
who joined him as opponents of the friends of the Mace- 
donian monarch. Hyperides, who was responsible for a 
decree calling every Athenian freeman, slave, and ally 
under arms for the defense of the city against Philip after 
the defeat of the Greeks, was brought to trial for his action 
and, despite the eloquence of the pro-Macedonian orator, 
Aristogeiton, was acquitted. 

The current of popular emotion was even more plainly 
revealed when the time came to deliver the oration, at the 
Attic feast of the dead, to commemorate the citizens fallen 
at the battle of Chaeronea. The honor fell to Demosthenes, 
the one man whose implacable hatred to the Macedonian 
dynasty and all its works was known to everyone. At- 
tempts were made in Athens to reform the terms of military 
service by arranging that all citizens should be called out 
to defend their country, and at the same time money was 
spent in putting the fortifications of the city in a state 
to resist an army composed of skilled troops and provided 
with the siege artillery of the time. 

But care had been taken not to invite attack while Athens 
was yet unprepared. At the marriage feast of Mgse ap- 
peared an Athenian deputation bringing a golden wreath 
to Philip and a copy of a decree, passed formally by the 
city, by which it undertook to surrender anyone in its 
jurisdiction who should dare to plot against the king. When 
the news of the assassination reached Athens, Demosthenes 
appeared in the council in festal garb, and solemnly thanked 
the gods for the deliverance done at ^Egse. He considered 
that Athens had nothing to fear from the silly youth who 
now was ruling over Macedon. 

But Alexander showed that the great orator had not 
taken his enemy's measure. By the rapidity of his actions, 
he checked all attempts to revolt. Suddenly appearing at 
the head of his army in Thessaly, he received from the 
Thessalian allied cities the position of commander-in- 
chief, as his father had done before him, and moving rap- 
idly south, he reached Thermopylae, where he summoned 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 9 

the Amphiktyons, and meeting no opposition, was declared 
by them guardian of the temple at Delphi. Marching far- 
ther south to Thebes, he prevented, by his presence with 
an overwhelming force, any anti-Macedonian movement; 
and when the Athenians sent a delegation to greet him, he 
was tactful enough not to ask for further guaranties of 
good behavior on the part of the city they represented. 

The Hellenic league, which included all the Greek states 
south of Thermopylae and all the islands which had once 
owned the supremacy of Athens, met again at Corinth and 
renewed with Alexander the same agreement that had previ- 
ously been made with his father, a treaty of offensive and 
defensive alliance, and the chief command by land and sea 
was assigned to the new king, as his father's successor. 
After this triumphal and peaceful progress, Alexander re- 
turned home, where his barbarian neighbors were giving 
trouble by revolts against his authority. 

In order to bring himself in contact with the Greek oppo- 
sition to Alexander, Attalus, one of the two commanders 
of the Macedonian army in Asia, had entered into relations 
with Demosthenes, only a short time after Alexander's suc- 
cession. As Cleopatra's uncle he took a leading part in 
engineering a conspiracy intended to supplant Alexander by 
Amyntas, the young son of Perdikkas, the elder brother 
of Philip, who by the traditional usage of the Macedonian 
monarchy was entitled to succeed Philip. The success of 
Alexander in Greece convinced Attalus of the futility of 
his schemes, and he therefore tried to make advances to 
the young ruler. But Alexander was not to be placated, 
and, as a deviser of conspiracies in his own interest, he 
showed that he had nothing to learn from the practised 
hands of the Macedonian nobles. 

It would have been extremely unwise for Alexander to 
have shown himself openly an enemy of Attalus, who 
enjoyed much popularity in the army. Accordingly he 
made a show of friendship by graciously accepting the ad- 
vances of Attalus, and at the same time he despatched an 
associate, Hekatseus, on whom he could rely, with direc- 
tions to assassinate him. The treacherous deed was made 



10 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

the easier, because Parmenio, joint-commander with Atta- 
lus in Asia Minor, facilitated the plans of the assassination, 
despite the fact that Attains was married to his daughter. 
The tribal interests of a half-barbarous people had full 
sway among the Macedonians, so Parmenio, who had 
throughout his life been conscientiously loyal to the Mace- 
donian monarchy, did not scruple to sacrifice his daughter's 
husband, when it appeared that his son-in-law was plotting 
to supplant the regularly accepted monarch of his people. 

Alexander's difficulties were being quickly dissolved by 
crime and bloodshed. The Macedonians had none of the 
political experiences common to the free Greek communi- 
ties, and assassination was regarded both as an ordinary 
expedient for removing opponents, and as the logical method 
of rounding off a policy that was complicated. With At- 
tains removed, Alexander could proceed, without further 
hesitation, to strengthen his position at home. Amyntas, 
the young pretender, was executed, and with him all of the 
relatives of Attains and Cleopatra. In this Borgia-like 
program of eliminating possible claimants to the throne, 
only the stepbrother of Alexander, a half-witted lad, 
Amidaeus, was spared. Later Alexander's mother, Olym- 
pias, forced her rival, the queen-widow Cleopatra, to 
commit suicide. 

With this orgy of crime, the reign of Alexander was 
ushered in, and one reads with astonishment to-day the thin 
and specious apologies which would excuse the young ruler, 
the real instigator of these atrocities. As a matter of fact 
he early acquired the habit of assassination; unfortunately 
he never unlearned it. Whatever may be argued in behalf 
of his people, who were uncivilized, nothing can extenuate 
this early exercise in crime of the pupil of Aristotle. When 
we survey his record of one year we perceive that hatred 
of his deeds must have been the test of patriotism and good 
citizenship among the Greek communities, who might well 
see in him the typical tyrant of their political theories. 

Alexander's violent preparations for a peaceful reign were 
successful. During his lifetime the tranquillity of Mace- 
donia was not disturbed. Greece had been brought by the 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT ii 

display of military supremacy to a position of servitude; 
all that needed to be done before he took up his father's 
program for the invasion of Asia, was to bring the 
western tribes on his northern frontier to reason, and to 
force home upon them the realization of the power of 
Macedon. 

In the spring of 335, Alexander left Amphipolis, and by 
a rapid march of ten days reached Mount Hsemus in the 
thick of a population which had never recognized the su- 
premacy of Macedon. They tried to defend themselves in 
their mountain passes, but Alexander soon forced his way 
through, and on the top of the highest mountain, celebrated 
his victory by setting up a thank offering to Dionysus. He 
then gave his attention to various mountain tribes with 
whom his father had had trouble, who had never before 
been subjugated, but who now met a decisive defeat at 
his hands. An island on the Danube, where the tribesmen 
had placed for security their wives and children and prop- 
erty, proved, however, impregnable. The young king 
showed himself from the first a master of strategy, for al- 
though he could not capture the island, he executed rapid 
movements along the river, beating the Getse who were 
defending the passages, and when the Triballi had come 
to terms, he marched up the Danube, and then, cross- 
ing the eastern passes of the Hsemus range, returned to 
Pseonia. 

Alexander's absence in the north in this untiring cam- 
paign against barbarian tribes, whose homes and habits 
were hardly known to the civilized states of Greece, was 
taken advantage of by his enemies. While he was fighting 
on the Danube, the King of Illyria, Kleitos, whose people 
had given trouble to Philip and whose father had fallen 
in battle with the Macedonians, rose in revolt. Several 
tribes farther north on the Adriatic coast joined with the 
Illyrians in this anti-Macedonian movement. Without a 
moment's hesitation, Alexander turned to deal with his new 
enemies, and in order to do effective work, penetrated far 
into the mountainous region of Illyria. The Macedonian 
army soon found itself in a hazardous position, surrounded 



12 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

on all sides by hostile tribes. By skilful strategy, Alex- 
ander withdrew his troops from the danger that threatened 
them, while they were besieging Pelion in the face of 
superior numbers, and when he found that the Illyrians 
were following him, he quickly turned on them, admin- 
istered a decisive blow, and forced Kleitos to seek a refuge 
in the territory of the Taulantines, one of the tribes which 
had been co-operating with the Illyrians in their resistance 
to his army. 

In the meantime, the presence of a Macedonian force 
in Asia Minor had awakened the Persians to the danger 
confronting them of an invasion from Greece. Its full 
meaning was hardly appreciated, and the new situation was 
interpreted as only another example of the type of attack 
so frequently made by the Greek communities ever since 
the time when the Persian invasion of Greece had been 
successfully blocked. It had always been found possible to 
avoid a serious attack from Greece on the Persian Empire 
by playing off one Greek state against another. This 
well-tried expedient was now used again. Letters were sent 
from the King of Persia to the states of Greece urging 
them to rise against Macedon, and offering large sums of 
money to subsidize the revolt. Sparta alone responded to 
the invitation; Athens and the other states, which had 
just renewed a formal alliance with Macedon, seemed to 
realize the hopelessness of an anti-Macedonian movement, 
and refused to accept the offer of Persian money. All that 
the representatives of the great king could accomplish in 
this direction wa^ to leave in the hands of Demosthenes 
the sum of three hundred talents, with the understanding 
that he could use his own discretion in employing it to 
the best advantage in the interests of Persia. 

The action of the great Athenian orator in accepting the 
Persian gold has been severely criticised and warmly de- 
fended. It must be remembered that to him Alexander 
appeared only as the destroyer of Greek liberty and not as 
the protagonist of Greek culture, a position which can be 
understood only as the result of his conquests in the East. 
There was no reason why an Athenian patriot should have 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 13 

been willing to destroy the Persian Empire at the cost of 
the enslavement of his own city. 

The perils and difficulties of the Illyfian campaign were 
magnified by the rumors which reached the Greek cities. 
It was even reported that Alexander had been slain and 
his army destroyed. This report was soon followed by 
an uprising in Thebes against the Macedonians. The 
leaders of the Macedonian faction were murdered and the 
Macedonian garrison in the citadel closely besieged. The 
democratic constitution was then restored and Theban of- 
ficials were elected according to the old constitutional forms. 
At this juncture, Demosthenes used some of the Persian 
treasure to purchase arms, which he sent to Thebes to 
aid its citizens in their contest for the restoration of their 
independence. 

While the Thebans were most active, the rest of Greece 
was not slow in showing its antipathy to Macedonian con- 
trol. Athens prepared itself to do battle for Greek auton- 
omy ; the isthmus of Corinth was occupied by an army raised 
from among the Arcadian cities, with Mantineia at their 
head. And the people of Elis and ^tolia showed that they 
would be ready to aid the Thebans. 

But before any common plan of resistance could be pre- 
pared, Alexander and his army had passed the frontiers of 
Boeotia after a remarkably rapid forced march, undertaken 
as soon as the news of the defection of the Thebans had 
reached him in lUyria. It took him but fourteen days in 
all to cover the distance from the scene of operations in 
Illyria to the gates of Thebes. He was willing to come to 
terms with the Thebans, offering them easy conditions pro- 
vided they would admit his troops into the city; but the 
mass of the inhabitants preferred to cast in their lot with 
those who were in favor of resistance. 

The exiled citizens of Thebes knew they would receive 
short shrift at the hands of the son of the man who had 
driven them from their native city. The chances of suc- 
cessful resistance were overestimated, but Thebes had for- 
merly led a forlorn hope in its contest with the Spartans; 
and, as the unexpected had happened before, the Thebans, 



14 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

who were preparing to withstand the Macedonians can 
hardly be blamed for recalling the glorious memories of 
the battle of Leuktra. But they were now dealing with 
a new, vigorous army, not with a Spartan force spoiled 
by routine. As no help could be looked for from the out- 
side, the situation was altogether different. The result 
proved that the Thebans of Alexander's day had inherited 
indeed the valor, but not the intelhgence, of the generation 
of Epaminondas and Pelopidas. 

The Macedonian garrison still held out in the Kadmeia, 
the citadel which lay in the southern part of the city, near 
the gate of Elektra, through which passed the road to 
Athens. Its walls were an integral part of the fortifications 
of the city. The object of the Thebans was therefore to 
cut off all communication from the Kadmeia by building 
about it inclosing lines. This operation Alexander aimed 
to prevent, and with Perdikkas at the head of a contingent 
of Macedonian mountaineers, he succeeded in breaking 
through the Theban line of defense, and finally forced his 
adversaries back to the walls of the city. They were closely 
pursued in this retreat, and, as they entered the gate in 
disorder, the Macedonians were able to force their way into 
the city at the same time. Another division of the Mace- 
donians found little difficulty in entering the Kadmeia, and 
from this point of vantage they quickly descended into 
the city. The Thebans made an attempt to rally in the 
market place, but the rout was soon general. After the 
city was overrun by the Macedonians and their allies, it 
was noted that the people of the smaller Boeotian towns 
signalized themselves by their acts of cruelty done on the 
now defenseless Thebans, from whose tyranny they had 
suffered in the past. Six thousand men, it is said, perished 
in the taking of Thebes, while the Macedonian loss did 
not exceed 500. (September, 335 B.C.) 

Alexander called together his allies to settle the fate of 
the conquered. The decision was a horrible example of 
rancorous hatred, for he allowed the smaller cities 
of Boeotia, smarting, as we have seen, under the sense of 
long grievances, to work their will on their once powerful 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 15 

neighbor. The town was to be razed to the ground, only 
the house of Pindar being spared. The sole part of the 
fortifications of the town to be retained was the Kadmeia, 
which remained as a military post with its Macedonian 
garrison. The Theban territory was to be divided among 
the allies, and all the captive Thebans, men, women, and 
children, with but a few exceptions, were to be sold as 
slaves. Those Thebans who escaped from the city were to 
be outlawed, and no Greek city would be permitted to 
receive them. The only positive items in this ruthless de- 
cree were the provisions for restoring Orchemenos and 
Plataea, places which Thebes had once treated with the 
severity now meted out to her. 

Such a catastrophe, as the result of a defeat or a siege, 
had never before been witnessed in Greece, and the impres- 
sion produced was one of unmitigated terror. It was not 
simply the misfortunes of the existing Theban community, 
or the material loss from the annihilation of property. 
Thebes had the closest associations with the heroic age 
of Greece, its name was interwoven with the stories of 
gods and heroes. Kadmus had founded it ; within its limits 
Dionysus and Herakles had been born. The city which 
had shattered the power of Sparta was left desolate, and 
the plow passed over the ground where it had once stood. 
It seemed according to a contemporary as if Zeus had torn 
the moon from the heavens. 

The impression made throughout Greece by this barbarous 
deed was universal; no one dared to think of resistance 
to Alexander. There was a general desire among the vari- 
ous cities to place themselves in a favorable position with 
the conqueror. The Arcadians condemned to death those 
who had advised that aid should be given to the Thebans; 
in other places the partisans of Macedonia were received 
back from exile, and haste was made to acquaint Alexander 
of the general desire to meet his wishes. 

The Athenians were celebrating their most solemn reli- 
gious festival, the Eleusinian Mysteries, when the taking 
of Thebes was announced. There was widespread con- 
sternation, because it was assumed that the next move of 



i6 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

Alexander would be made against Athens in order to 
punish its citizens for their anti-Macedonian sentiments. 
The celebration of the festival was abandoned; the inhab- 
itants of the open country took refuge within the city walls, 
in anticipation of the ravaging of their lands, and the 
fortifications surrounding the city were fully prepared for 
defense. In spite of the plain dangers involved in showing 
sympathy for the defeated Thebans, fugitives from that 
city were received with an open-handed hospitality, and 
their needs cared for without stint. But at the same time 
an opening for maintaining amicable relations with the victor 
was preserved, by sending a formal embassy to Alexander 
to congratulate him on his return from Illyria and for his 
quick victory over the rebels in Thebes. 

The true situation of affairs in Athens was an open 
secret. Alexander knew the part played by the Athenians 
in preparing for the Theban revolt; he knew, too, that 
they had been on the point of actively and openly co- 
operating with the Thebans, and that the plan had been 
frustrated only by the rapidity with which he had moved 
on the city. Yet the young ruler showed himself unex- 
pectedly placable in his treatment of Athens. There is no 
reason to attribute his attitude to mere generosity of senti- 
ment in favor of the city because of its glorious past. 
There were more practical reasons; the siege of Athens 
could hardly be successful except through command of the 
sea, and any attempt of this kind would most likely have 
been frustrated or at least rendered doubtful by the inter- 
vention of the Persian fleet. 

Instead of advancing into Attica, Alexander stopped to 
parley, and agreed to abstain from hostilities on condition 
that the Athenians should promptly expel the Theban fugi- 
tives, and also should surrender to him the men who had 
been lately responsible for the anti-Macedonian direction 
of the government. It is to the credit of the Athenians that 
the first condition was without a negative rejected; and 
as to the second there were many of the anti-democratic 
faction who would have been glad to get rid of their oppo- 
nents by agreeing to this indirect demand of the Macedonian 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 17 

king that the government of the city should be handed over 
to his partisans. Phokion, one of the distinguished and 
revered members of the oligarchic group, was willing to 
accept the condition unreservedly; but Demosthenes and 
Demades, another popular leader, successfully urged the 
assembly of the people to vote against it, and even Phokion 
agreed to head an embassy to acquaint Alexander with 
the decision of the Athenian citizens. The king showed 
himself ready to compromise, for the success of his schemes 
against Asia depended largely on the good will of Athens 
and its fleet. It was finally arranged that the Athenian 
anti-Macedonian military leader Charidemos should be ban- 
ished, a proposal to which it was all the easier for the 
Athenians to accede, because he was not a native Athenian. 
This officer and several others withdrew to Asia and took 
service under Darius. 



Ill 

THE CONQUEST OF PERSIA 

Now that the pacification of Greece was effected by the 
restoration of Athens as a member of the Macedonian con- 
federacy, Alexander, without visiting that city, marched 
to the isthmus of Corinth to arrange for the various Greek 
contingents for his expedition to Asia, and after receiving 
from the oracle at Delphi a reply encouraging him to carry 
out his grandiose scheme of conquest, he retired to Mace- 
donia to spend the winter before setting out on his march 
against the Persian Empire. 

Of the details of his proposed invasion nothing is known 
beyond the fact that his original scheme must have been 
considerably modified as he penetrated farther into Asia. 
His geographical knowledge of the interior of the empire 
could hardly -have been sufficient for an orderly mapping 
out beforehand of the course he actually took. That was 
entirely governed by the extraordinary series of events 
which marked the various stages of his expedition. His 



i8 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

design was to dethrone the Persian king and secure pos- 
session of the country. To do this effectively the first 
step was to conquer Asia Minor, to get under his control 
the remoter provinces of Syria and Egypt, and then to ad- 
vance on Babylon and Susa. That there was immediate 
necessity for setting his army on the march was plain to 
him, because of the dangerous position of the Macedonian 
forces already in Asia Minor. The Persian general, Mem- 
non, had checkmated Parmenio, who was recalled, and 
the prospects of Macedonian success were blighted by the 
defeat of another Macedonian general Kallas in the Troad. 
Before Alexander left his own kingdom, the authority of 
the Persian government had been generally restored 
throughout the whole of Asia Minor. 

In the spring of 334, Alexander marched to the Helles- 
pont with an army numbering altogether 30,000 infantry 
and 4500 cavalry. Of these, 12,000 infantry and 1500 cav- 
alry were from Macedon; contingents from the allies made 
up the rest. There were besides 160 warships, of which 
Athens furnished twenty. Alexander's chief military ad- 
viser was Parmenio, whom Philip, his father, had de- 
clared to be the only Macedonian general he had discov- 
ered in many years. Of the subordinate officers the most 
noteworthy were Philotas, who was in command of the 
Macedonian cavalry, and Nikanor, who led the elite of the 
Macedonian infantry (the so-called Hypaspistae, or the 
Bodyguards). During the absence of the king, the admin- 
istration of Macedon and of the subject states was left in 
the hands of Antipater. 

The incompetence of the Persians in aggressive resistance 
was manifest from the first. They were far superior to 
the Greeks at sea, and if they had made intelligent use of 
their fleet they could have prevented Alexander's army 
from crossing the Hellespont. Indeed, orders had been 
issued the year before to the coast cities that their ships 
should be kept in readiness in anticipation of an invasion. 
But so slipshod was the administration in the loosely gov- 
erned provinces of Persia that their great fleet was unable 
to put to sea when Alexander reached the narrow arm of 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 19 

water which divides Europe from Asia. He Lad no dif- 
ficuhy in passing; indeed Parmenio was left to superin- 
tend this operation, while the young king visited the cities 
of the Troad rich in legendary lore, and made a pilgrimage 
to the tomb of his reputed ancestor, Achilles. 

The Greeks soon began their march down the coast. The 
satraps of the neighboring provinces had in the meantime 
gathered together all the troops available in the Propontis 
and had Joined the army of Memnon. From the statements 
made in contemporary sources, it is not possible to gather 
the numerical strength of the army which now opposed 
Alexander's advance; it is certain, however, that in in- 
fantry the Persians were weaker than the Greeks, while 
it is probable that they were also outnumbered in cavalry. 

They were certainly aware of their weakness, because 
Memnon advised against a stand-up battle, suggesting in- 
stead that they should retire into the interior, wasting the 
country as they went, and so hinder the rapidity of the 
enemy's march until their own fleet appeared; then the 
war could be carried into Greece and Alexander forced to 
retreat. But this prudent strategy was not acceptable to 
the Persian satraps, who preferred active measures that 
seemed to offer a chance of preventing Alexander from 
getting a firm foothold in Persian territory. 

They prepared to offer battle by taking up a position 
on the river Granicus, a stream flowing down from the 
northern slope of Mt. Ida to the Propontis. It seems as 
if the Persians, conscious of their weakness, selected a 
battlefield where their enemies, with a river in front of 
them, would find it a matter of some difliculty to attack. 
They may have supposed that Alexander would hesitate 
to advance under such unfavorable conditions. The Mace- 
donian army was so disposed that the heavy-armed infantry 
held the center while the wings were formed by the cavalry 
and the bowmen. Alexander himself was with the picked 
Macedonian cavalry on the right wing; next him were 
arranged the hypaspists, extending towards the middle. 
This wing, comprising cavalry, bowmen, and heavy-armed 
troops, appears to have crossed the river first and to have 



20 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

put to flight the Persian cavalry. That the Persians used 
horsemen here and not bowmen seems strange. Cavalry 
were of little use in preventing an advance up the steep 
slope from the stream. 

First the Persian horse were put to flight by the right 
Macedonian wing, commanded by Alexander, who took an 
active part in the hand-to-hand conflict ; then the phalanx of 
Greek mercenaries on the Persian side, who had stood by 
hitherto without taking any part in the engagement, were 
attacked in front by the Macedonian phalanx and on the 
flanks by the cavalry and bowmen and, being thus prevented 
from making any real resistance, were hewn down or taken 
prisoners. The Macedonian loss was so small, eighty-five 
horsemen and thirty foot soldiers, that it would seem that 
probably the Greek mercenaries, instead of resisting their 
own kinsmen, allowed themselves to be taken prisoners. 
The brunt of the battle was borne by the Persian horsemen, 
who fought valorously, and in the obstinate scrimmage 
with them Alexander was in considerable personal danger. 
Two of the satraps lost their lives on the field. The Greek 
prisoners were sent in chains to Macedon, and of the booty 
taken, 300 suits of armor were sent to the Parthenon at 
Athens as a thank-offering, a visible reminder to the Greeks 
of the victor's progress. (May- June, 334 b.c.) 

The fruits of the victory were immediate : several of the 
principal cities surrendered, among them Sardis, with its 
impregnable citadel, and Ephesus. In both places Alex- 
ander was greeted as a deliverer from Persian tyranny; 
democratic government was restored, and a beginning was 
made for organizing a massacre of the oligarchic faction. 
This Alexander prevented, making it clear by his interven- 
tion that he did not wish to alienate the sympathies of 
the propertied classes in Asia. Of the other Greek cities 
in Ionia and ^olis, only one gave serious trouble, Miletus, 
which looked to the Persian fleet for aid. It was occupied 
besides by a strong garrison of Greek mercenaries. Alex- 
ander's fleet, however, appeared at Miletus before the Per- 
sian fleet, which was on its way from Cyprus and Phoenicia, 
reached the scene of action. When this fleet came up, it 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 2r 

tried in vain to entice the Macedonian ships into an action, 
and remained idly by while Alexander besieged Miletus 
and finally took it by storm. 

The sole stronghold still left to Persia in the region was 
Halicarnassus to the south. Hither the Persian fleet re- 
paired, and here, as the place was strongly fortified and 
well manned with troops, Memnon planned to establish a 
base for further operations by sea against Greece itself. 
But Alexander declined to take the risk of meeting the 
Persian fleet in a naval engagement. Winter was at hand, 
and most of the Macedonian ships had been sent home; 
there was only a small squadron left, and the king marched 
south with his army to besiege Halicarnassus by land. 

The problem before him was anything but easy, for 
Halicarnassus, besides being strongly fortified, had through 
the presence of the Persian fleet free communication with 
the outside. It could be supplied with food, although the 
opportunity of obtaining mercenary troops from Greece was 
made difficult through the fear of Macedon. The city walls 
were surrounded with wide ditches and these Alexander 
filled up, in order to give access to his siege engines. Sev- 
eral breaches were made, but the first attempt to storm 
the place failed, and the defenders of the city erected new 
fortifications in place of those that had been cut down. 
They also made a sortie, trying to destroy the siege engines, 
but were repulsed with loss. Memnon saw that the town 
could no longer be held, and by night embarked his troops, 
carrying them to Cos; but before he left he set fire to the 
abandoned town. Alexander immediately entered, showed 
himself merciful to its citizens, and proceeded on his march, 
leaving a division of 3050 men to watch the citadel of 
HaHcarnassus, which evidently he did not think of sufficient 
importance to besiege now that the Persians had only a 
small number of troops in the neighborhood, in Salmakis 
and on the island Arconnesus. 

The whole of the province of Caria now ceased to resist, 
with the exception of a few places on the coast. A part of 
the Greek army, under the orders of Parmenio, were 
sent into winter quarters in Lydia, while Alexander ad- 



22 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

vanced through Lycia and Pamphylia, without meeting any 
real resistance, and marched by the way of the mountainous 
country of Pisidia, among a population never conquered 
by the Persians, and in the spring of 333 joined Parmenio 
at Gordion, the ancient capital of Phrygia. From here the 
route of the army was through Cappadocia by the narrow 
pass called the Cilician Gate, by which the road from the 
interior plateau crosses the Taurus on its way to Tarsus. 
The garrison which occupied the pass fled on the approach 
of the Greek army, Tarsus itself was abandoned, and the 
whole province of Cilicia was occupied without resistance. 
In the meantime, however, Memnon had not been in- 
active, and he was putting to good use his superiority in 
naval strength. Several islands had either been occupied 
or were making preparations to join the Persian general, 
and even in continental Greece the anti-Macedonian influ- 
ence was being felt. There was no question that Mem- 
non's arrival on the shores of European Greece would be 
the signal for a general abandonment of the Macedonian 
cause. Athens even sent an embassy to Darius, although 
the city did not dare to join the Persians openly. In the 
midst of these successes, Memnon was taken ill and died. 
Those who succeeded him in the command showed none 
of his capacity. The fleet was kept in inactivity, and though 
on land some small successes could be put to the credit of 
the Persian arms in Asia Minor, the soldiers operating 
there were soon directed to join the main army of Darius 
in Syria, now being collected to meet the advancing Greeks. 
When the news of Alexander's victory at the Granicus 
reached the interior of the Persian Empire, Darius began 
to draw together a large army, and leaving Babylon in 
January, reached northern Syria in autumn. Alexander 
was still in Cilicia, detained in Tarsus by a severe illness, 
and on his recovery busied himself with the conquest 
of some of the coast cities. But when he heard of the 
advance of Darius, he marched through the narrow pass 
near the coast which connects Cilicia and Syria, and com- 
menced the siege of Myriandros, the first Phoenician city 
on the road. He evidently reckoned on Darius meeting 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 23 

him in the level places of northern Persia, where the latter's 
cavalry could be used to its best advantage, but Darius 
showed a keener strategical instinct than is usually asso- 
ciated with Persian generalship. While Alexander was 
taking the coast road south, Darius' army made a northerly 
movement, passing over a difficult mountain region, and so 
appeared in the rear of the Macedonian army on the level 
plain near Issus. The Persians had a strong position; on 
their right was the sea, and on their left a chain of moun- 
tains. On the front they were protected by the deeply 
worn bed of the river Pinarus. They had also constructed 
a line of earthworks. 

The preliminary operations of the Persians were con- 
ducted with great intelligence. By them Alexander was 
cut off from his base and his position was desperate, unless 
he could restore his line of communications by a successful 
engagement. This was no easy matter, for the mountain 
defile, the Assyrian Gate, had to be passed through, a place 
where the mountains and the sea are so close that there is 
room only for a road. Darius had an excellent position 
but failed to make any use of it. Without attempting to 
interfere he allowed Alexander to march through the narrow 
strip of land between the mountains and the sea and to 
change from a column formation into regular battle array. 

It took the Greek commander the whole night to make 
the journey from Myriandros, a place south of the defile, 
to the level country on the banks of the Pinarus. As 
Alexander's army debouched on the plain, the cavalry and 
the hght-armed troops sent against them by Darius failed 
to arrest their progress. The Persians were outmanoeu- 
vered from the start, for on the plain, which had very 
narrow hmits — a httle more than two miles wide — Darius 
could make no use of his superior numbers, nor was 
there opportunity for bringing to bear to any purpose the 
Persian advantage in cavalry. It was possible for Alex- 
ander to extend his own line of battle just as far as the 
enemy could, and the nature of the ground protected him 
against any enveloping manoeuver. Thus the disposable 
forces, on either side, were equalized, and on account of 



24 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

the superior training and skill of the Macedonians, there 
was little doubt from the first as to the issue of the fight. 

On the Greek side the left wing was commanded by- 
Alexander in person, and it was made up of the Macedonian 
cavalry, the hypaspists, and a part of the ordinary in- 
fantry. The vigor of their onslaught was irresistible, and 
the Asiatics opposed to them gave way after a short struggle 
and fled. The whole Persian center was disorganized, 
even Darius avoiding capture with difficulty. His chariots, 
his royal robes, and his arms fell into the hands of the 
victorious Greeks. In another part of the field Par- 
menio, who was in command of the left wing of the Greek 
army, had no easy time in withstanding the charges of 
the Asiatic cavalry, and also when the Macedonian phalanx 
undertook to storm the heights which were occupied by 
Greek mercenary troops on the other side, they were re- 
pulsed with considerable loss. Fortunately, Alexander, 
after defeating the division opposed to him, was able to 
use his infantry to attack the mercenaries on their rear, 
and they were forced to withdraw from the field. They 
retired in good order, but the Persian cavalry proved inef- 
ficient, and were repulsed with great loss. In their flight 
they demoralized the reserves which had been placed by 
the Persians immediately behind the line of battle. The 
Persian army ceased to exist as a military entity and the 
fugitives were saved from further pursuit only by the early 
nightfall of the autumn season. Darius was able to bring 
together on the other side of the Syrian mountains 4000 
men, most of whom were Greek mercenaries, and with a 
small force he recrossed the Euphrates. The main body 
of the Greeks, attached to the army of Darius, made their 
way to Tripolis in Phoenicia and from there sailed to 
Cyprus. (October, 333 b.c.) 

After the battle the Persian camp was occupied by the 
Greeks, and among the captives were the mother of Darius 
and his wife, Stateira, and her children. These members of 
the royal household were treated considerately. Their pres- 
ence with the Greek army was a most valuable asset, and 
a few days after his defeat Darius began to open negotia- 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 25 

tions for the purpose of having the captives restored to 
him. Alexander showed no unfriendly spirit, and received 
an embassy with formal proposals of peace from Darius. 
The conditions were, that all of the country west of the 
Euphrates should be ceded and the large sum of 10,000 
talents given for the return of the royal captives. In addi- 
tion to this, as a pledge of good faith, it was proposed that 
Alexander should receive one of the king's daughters in 
marriage. The offer was a proof that Darius realized how 
deep was his humiliation and how small the chance of 
successful resistance to the conqueror. 

Liberal as the terms were, it must have been plain to 
Alexander that to make peace now was to leave his work 
half finished, especially as the first half was the more dif- 
ficult. In it he had defeated the best soldiers under the 
command of Darius, and there was nothing more to fear 
from the Persian fleet, its most important units being with- 
drawn to protect Syria, nor was a rising in Greece likely 
to be attempted. The news of the battle of Issus had made 
the anti-Macedonian faction in the Greek cities see the 
purposelessness of counting on the co-operation of Persia. 
At the Isthmian games the representatives of the Hellenic 
confederation voted Alexander a golden crown as a de- 
fender of the liberties of Greece. 

Alexander answered the proposition of the Persian king 
in a stern mood, fully conscious of his strength. His letter 
to Darius, which has been preserved, is a document that 
speaks in no uncertain tone. " Your ancestors invaded 
Macedonia and the rest of Greece, and without provocation 
inflicted wrongs upon us. I was appointed leader of the 
Greeks and crossed over into Asia for the purpose of 
avenging those wrongs; for ye were the first aggressors. 
In the next place ye assisted the people of Perinthus, who 
were offenders against my father, and Ochus sent a force 
into Thrace, which was part of our empire. Further, the 
conspirators who slew my father were suborned by you, as 
ye yourselves boasted in your letters. Thou with the help 
of Bagoas didst murder Arses (son of Ochus) and seize 
the throne unjustly and contrary to the law of the Persians, 



26 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

and then thou didst write improper letters regarding me 
to the Greeks, to incite them to war against me, and didst 
send to the Lacedaemonians and other of the Greeks, for 
the same purpose, sums of money (whereof none of the 
other cities partook but only the Lacedaemonians) ; and 
these emissaries corrupted my friends and tried to dissolve 
the peace which I had brought about in Greece. Wherefore 
I marched forth against thee who wert the aggressor 
in general. I have overcome in battle first thy generals 
and satraps, and now thyself and thine host, and possess 
thy land through the grace of the gods. Those who fought 
on thy side and were not slain but took refuge with me, 
are under my protection and are glad to be with me and 
will fight with me henceforward. I am lord of all Asia, 
and therefore do thou come to me. If thou art afraid of 
being evilly entreated, send some of thy friends to receive 
sufficient guaranties. Thou hast only to come to me to ask 
and receive thy mother and children, and whatsoever else 
thou mayest desire. And for the future whenever thou 
sendest, send to me as to the Great King of Asia, and do 
not write as to an equal, but tell me whatever thy need 
be, as to one who is lord of all that is thine. Otherwise 
I shall deal with thee as an offender. But if thou dis- 
putest the kingdom, then wait and fight for it again and 
do not flee; for I will march against thee, wherever thou 
mayest be." 

Darius now set about collecting another army and made 
no more peace proposals. He gathered the fragments of 
the force that had been beaten at Issus, and to this were 
added contingents drawn from all the furthermost parts 
of his empire still in his hands. The army so formed was 
almost exclusively Asiatic, for of Greek mercenaries there 
were only the soldiers, a few thousand all told, who had 
followed him in his flight. No others could now be secured. 
Darius' new plan was to await the approach of Alexander 
on the plains of Assyria, where the Persian cavalry could 
be used with most effect. 

On Alexander's part there was no haste in turning to the 
interior. Instead of following Darius, he remained on the 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 27 

sea coast, while Parmenio was sent to Damascus with 
half the Greek army, to seize the treasure left there by 
Darius before the battle of Issus. Alexander with the rest 
of the army turned south to the conquest of the great 
island city of Phoenicia, which unlike its smaller neighbors 
had refused to surrender and had declared its neutrality 
to Alexander. Tyre was the center of Persian sea power, 
and so long as it remained independent its fleet could be 
used against the Greek king, either on the sea itself or as 
an instrument for creating disturbances in continental 
Greece. 

The siege of Tyre involved special difficulties; not only 
were its walls high and strong, but it was situated on an 
island separated from the mainland by a shallow body of 
water. As Alexander had no fleet adequate to conduct 
aggressive operations from the open sea against the city, 
he planned to bring up his siege engines against the walls 
from the land side, by building a causeway over the shallow 
body of water. The defenders of the town tried repeatedly 
and with great bravery to prevent such an approach from 
being made. Tyre's own commercial competitors, Cyprus 
and the less important Phoenician cities, including Sidon, 
placed their navies at Alexander's disposition, and with 
their ships he began to operate from the sea. The situation 
of the town was desperate, but its people made a defense as 
desperate and as resourceful as their daughter city Carthage 
in later days against the Romans. 

iWhen the causeway was finally constructed, the walls 
on this side, being 150 feet high and enormously thick, were 
not damaged by the siege engines. Accordingly Alexander 
changed his plans quickly; the engines were mounted in 
vessels and a breach was effected in one of the battlements 
extending along the harbor. While the Macedonians were 
now able to penetrate the city, they met with heavy resist- 
ance from the besieged townsmen, and the occupation of 
Tyre was only effected by the protection of Alexander's 
naval allies, who forced an entrance into the two harbors, 
and so drew off a portion of the defenders from the side 
where the Greeks were making their attack. The stubborn 



28 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

defense cost the Tyrians 8000 men, and of the prisoners 
3000 were sold as slaves. On the Macedonian side the loss 
was small, only amounting to 400 men, but no mention is 
made of the losses of the allied fleets. The siege of Tyre 
lasted seven months, the city falling in July, 332. The 
long delay was worth while, for the successful issue showed 
how invincible was the generalship of the Greek leader. 
By the possession of the city he held the key to the control 
of the eastern Mediterranean. 

On the way south he met with no resistance except from 
the strong citadel at Gaza, which withstood him for two 
months and was finally taken by storm. The march to 
Egypt could now be safely undertaken, as the whole sea 
coast from the Hellespont south was in the hands of the 
Greeks. Egypt itself had no love for its Persian masters. 
It had not long before been autonomous for fifty years, 
and it had been brought back under the regime of the Great 
King under circumstances of repression that made its in- 
habitants greet Alexander as a liberator. The Persian gov- 
ernor, seeing the folly of resistance, gave up the strong 
places, and Alexander passed the winter in the country. 
During his stay he founded the only good harbor on the 
coast, the city which still bears his name. This under- 
taking was not the boastful action of a conqueror, solicitous 
of the praise of posterity; it was a keen-sighted scheme to 
divert from the Phoenician towns of Syria the control of the 
Mediterranean trade. Within half a century Alexandria 
had become a great commercial emporium, the center of 
Greek science and learning, and for three hundred years 
it continued to be the richest and largest city in the world. 

As the members of the old Egyptian monarchy had pro- 
claimed themselves sons of Ammon, Alexander, in order 
to regularize his position in the newly conquered province, 
made a visit to the temple of Zeus Ammon, traveling across 
the desert with a small company of troops. He was greeted 
by the priests of the temple as the divinely accredited ruler 
of Egypt, but the exact words of the response of the oracle 
were not communicated. They were kept as a mystery, 
but the divine honors claimed afterwards by Alexander 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 29 

were always connected with this mysterious attestation of 
his claim that his father was no earthly parent, but Zeus 
himself. 

Darius, meanwhile, was in no position to interrupt this 
series of successes in Syria and in Egypt. He had no army 
there prepared to take the field, but he did try to interfere 
with the Greek lines of communication in regions more 
remote from the present scene of operations. Antigonus, 
left in Phrygia as its governor, was attacked by a force com- 
posed of some of the soldiers who had fought on the Persian 
side at Issus, as well as of contingents from Cappadocia and 
Paphlagonia. But the attempt was unsuccessful. Antig- 
onus showed remarkable military ability, for with his 
small force he defeated the Persians and added to the 
region under him the country of Lycaonia, which had never 
submitted to Persian rule. In the spring of 331 Alexander 
left Egypt for his march to the interior of the Persian 
Empire, and by the middle of the summer he crossed the 
Euphrates near Thapsacus, and from there, taking a 
northerly direction through Mesopotamia, he passed the 
Tigris on the 20th of September. 

The advance of the Greek army was continuous, little 
resistance being offered to its progress. It seemed to be 
the aim of Darius to do nothing to prevent Alexander from 
penetrating into the interior. If the Greeks were defeated 
there, they would be cut off from retreat, and in case the 
Persians again failed, there would be a chance for the 
vanquished to withdraw in security to the mountainous 
country to the north. Alexander has been criticised for 
delaying so long in his occupation of Syria and Egypt; 
indeed Parmenio had urged him to accept the terms of- 
fered by Darius after the battle of Issus, a suggestion 
which called forth from Alexander the reply " that he 
would do it if he were Parmenio." But the small number 
of soldiers under his command showed the strategy he 
followed to be as cautious as his conduct of the expedition 
was daring. If he had gone straight on after the battle of 
Issus, he would have been obliged to detach enough men 
from his main army to act as a corps of observation in 



30 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

Syria and Egypt, and this would have left him hardly 
more than 20,000 men. 

In the meantime he had received accessions of numbers, 
so that when he came to confront Darius for the second 
time he had under his command about 47,000 men. The 
engagement took place at Gaugamela (October, 331 B.C.), 
not far from the ruins of Nineveh. Darius had made some 
attempt to give an improved armament to his foot soldiers, 
supplying them with longer spears and swords so that they 
might fight the Macedonian phalanx on more equal terms. 
Besides this, he had provided chariots armed with scythes 
and a small number of elephants, which could be effectively 
used only in a level country. But his chief hope lay in 
his cavalry, of which he probably had 12,000, while Alex- 
ander had but 7000. 

The Greeks had had four days' rest in a fortified camp 
before they were drawn up in battle array, and besides this 
the ground between them and the Persians had been care- 
fully reconnoitered, in order to discern if the enemy had 
constructed concealed pits to confuse the cavalry charge. 
There was no way of protecting the flanks of the army, 
so Alexander placed a reserve force behind with orders 
to move towards the right or the left, according as the 
expected turning movement from the Persians might de- 
velop. The Greeks moved forward on the 30th of Sep- 
tember, with Alexander leading the Macedonian heavy cav- 
alry and the bulk of the phalanx. He directed his attack 
against the enemy's left wing, but as he did so he was 
charged on the flank by the Scythian and Bactrian horse. 
He sent against them the reserves previously mentioned, 
and himself engaged the Persian infantry, who had lost 
heart when they were attacked by the Macedonian cav- 
alry. The manoeuvers with the scythe-bearing chariots 
did no damage, for the Greeks made way for them to 
pass through their ranks, and re-formed again as soon as 
they had rattled past. The onslaught of the phalanx proved 
irresistible ; the Asiatic foot could not withstand its superior 
armament and discipline. The Persian center was broken 
and again Darius had the ignominious experience of a head- 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 31 

long flight. The Persian cavalry, left to battle alone, was 
soon demoralized and could not hold its ground. 

Parmenio's experience with the left wing of the Greeks 
was different, for he had difficulty in keeping his position 
against the Persian horse. He could not follow Alexander's 
advance, and hence there came to be a great gap between 
the two positions of the army. In this open space the 
Persians precipitated themselves; the Greek lines in battle 
array were forced farther apart and their camp occupied. It 
was a most dangerous position, but the barbarians, instead 
of using their advantage, busied themselves in plundering 
the Greek camp. Alexander turned from pursuing the 
Persian center to help the hard-pressed left wing, and on 
his way met the enemy's cavalry, now on their way back 
with the booty of the Macedonian camp. He tried to cut 
them off from their main body, but they fought with des- 
peration and succeeded in breaking through. In the hand- 
to-hand fights one of Alexander's closest friends, Hephaes- 
tion, was wounded. 

The danger to the left wing was now over, for the 
Persian commander Mazaeus, on hearing of his king's 
flight, had ceased the attack on Parmenio, who now oc- 
cupied the Persian camp, while Alexander resumed the 
pursuit of the main body, anxious to get Darius into his 
hands. He marched with great rapidity, reaching on the 
day after the battle Arbela, at which place the supplies 
and treasures of the flying Persians were discovered. But 
the Great King had made good his escape to Media, where, 
owing to the mountainous character of the country, it was 
useless to pursue him farther. The results of the battle 
were impressive materially and emotionally. The Persians 
had no heart to continue the war. Their army was de- 
stroyed, 10,000 prisoners were in the hands of their enemy, 
and the road to their capitals, Babylon and Susa, lay open. 
All this had been won by Alexander at a small cost, only 
100 Macedonians having fallen, and the whole loss of the 
Greek army did not exceed 500 men. 

Alexander marched to Babylon, which was surrendered 
without resistance by its inhabitants, who welcomed him 



32 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

as a liberator. Religious differences had made the citizens 
regard the Persians as oppressors, and Alexander won 
over the Babylonians by acting as the protector of their 
national religion. He rebuilt the Babylonian temples and 
also showed a placable temper by keeping the Persian 
Mazseus as satrap of the province of Babylonia. Without 
delaying at Babylon longer than was necessary to conciliate 
the inhabitants, Alexander passed to Susa. Its citadel 
offered no resistance, and with its surrender the town and 
its treasury, amounting to 50,000 talents ($60,000,000), 
became the property of the conqueror. (December, 
331 B.C.) 

The next stage of the conquest of the interior of Asia 
was the occupation of the country called Persis, the home- 
land of the Persians. To reach it a difficult country held 
by Uxian hillmen had to be passed. These were proud of 
their independence, for they had never paid tribute to the 
Persians, and they now occupied their mountain defile, 
prepared to dispute the passage of the Greeks. They were 
easily circumvented by Alexander's strategy, and brought 
to reason. Farther on, the access to Persepolis was strongly 
defended by the Persians, but Alexander forced his way 
through devious mountain roads and took the capital with- 
out trouble. The national treasure, equivalent to 120,000 
talents, fell into his hands. 

Up to this point the march of Alexander had been 
through territories which the Persians had themselves ac- 
quired by conquest, and which had been long exploited 
by their satraps. The populations were, therefore, not 
inimical to the new conquerors. Indeed, as we have seen 
in many cases, the latter were greeted as deliverers from 
the heavy yoke of the Persians. On its side, the Mace- 
donian army had been kept under strict discipline, and 
the Hves and property of the people through whom it 
had passed were carefully respected. But Persepolis was 
really in the enemy's country, the cradle of Persian rule, 
and there was no chance of reconciling its inhabitants 
by kind treatment. They were now to feel the brunt of 
real warfare. The city was given up to plunder, and the 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 33 

royal citadel of the Achgemenian kings was burnt down in 
a drunken revel. This ruthless act has been condemned, 
and it does appear to have been the result of a moment 
of excess, not planned as part of a policy of repression, 
for Alexander ordered the flames quenched, though he 
himself had cast the first firebrand that had set the costly 
cedar work of the palace in flames. 

These various military operations lasted far into the 
autumn. When winter came the sorely tried and traveled 
Greeks took four months' rest, and from this point begins 
another stage in the expedition, for Persis was regarded 
as sufBciently pacified to allow the bulk of the army to 
march into Media. Here Darius was preparing to make 
a last stand, but his efforts to collect a new army had 
the somewhat pitiful result of bringing to his standard 
a force of not more than 3000 horsemen and 6000 foot 
soldiers. As the Greeks approached, he fled before them, 
recognizing the hopelessness of resistance. He seemed 
minded to take refuge in the extreme limits of what had 
been his empire, the province of Bactria. Without striking 
a blow, Alexander occupied Ecbatana, the last of the great 
Persian capitals. 

All that now remained was to round off the conquest by 
capturing the person of the defeated monarch, and to force 
the satraps of the eastern provinces to accept the new 
regime. This program offered no serious military problems, 
but it was bound to consume time and required patience. 
Many of the non-Macedonian Greeks were now sent home, 
after receiving generous rewards for their service, and 
Parmenio was left at Ecbatana, while Alexander with the 
best of his troops set off to pursue Darius. Hurrying on 
by Ragae, a place a little to the south of the modern capital 
of Persia, Alexander found there that the royal fugitive 
had already passed through the Caspian Gates into the 
regions of Parthia. Bactria was still much farther to the 
east. The followers of Darius, with the exception of a 
few faithful Greek mercenaries, determined to hand over 
their unlucky monarch as a prisoner to the satrap of Bac- 
tria, Bessus, a kinsman of his, and to trust to his initiative 



34 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

to organize a national resistance more effectively than 
Darius. 

When Alexander, after a stay of several days at 
Ragse, heard that his old antagonist was a prisoner he hur- 
ried on, taking rest neither by night nor by day, and finally 
came up with the barbarians, who now preserved no sem- 
blance of discipline in their retreat. When Bessus and 
the other conspirators saw Alexander approaching, they 
ordered Darius, who was probably carried in a litter, to 
mount a horse and accompany them. When he refused, 
they stabbed him and rode off. He was found dying at a 
spring near the road, by a Macedonian soldier. By the 
time Alexander reached the place the end had come. All 
that he could do for his fallen foe was to throw his own 
cloak over the body and order it to be sent with befitting 
honor to the queen mother. The last member of the 
Persian monarchy, which had become a world power under 
Cyrus, was buried in the royal tombs at Persepolis. , 



IV 

THE INVASION OF INDIA 

The death of Darius did not delay the activity of Alex- 
ander; he was all the more stirred to pursue Bessus when 
it was announced that the satrap of Bactria was claiming 
to be the successor of Darius and had assumed the insignia 
of royalty. But the regions close at hand had to be pacified, 
so Parmenio was sent to occupy the country near the 
southwest coast of the Caspian Sea. Alexander himself 
had to retrace his steps to deal with a rebellious satrap 
who had previously sent in his submission. 

On the march southward, the province of Drangiana was 
taken without resistance, but the conqueror's stay at the 
capital, Prophthasia, was marked by a mysterious tragedy. 
It was reported to Alexander that Philotas, the son of 
Parmenio, was plotting against him. An assembly of the 
Macedonian army was summoned, and the charges laid 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 35 

formally before them. Philotas admitted that he had known 
of a plot to assassinate Alexander, but had kept it secret. 
This reserve was treated as treason, and Philotas was put 
to death by the soldiers. This semi- judicial act was fol- 
lowed by the murder at Alexander's command of his faith- 
ful lieutenant, Parmenio, for which there was no excuse, 
as he had never been charged with complicity in the guilty 
knowledge of his son. But Alexander probably judged that 
the execution of Philotas would inaugurate a blood feud 
familiar to Macedonian life, and he resolved to take no 
chances. 

The road to Bactria selected by Alexander led him 
through modern Afghanistan and across the Hindu Kush 
mountains. But first he turned to the south in order to 
secure Seistan and the northwestern portion of Balu- 
chistan, known at that time as Gedrosia. The winter of 
330-29 he spent in the south of Seistan among a friendly 
people, the Ariaspse, to whom, on account of their hos- 
pitable reception, he granted autonomy. Among the 
Gedrosians, their neighbors, he set up a satrapy, with a 
capital at Pasa. 

In the spring, the Greek army pushed on to Arachosia, 
almost directly south of Bactria, where the king founded 
another Alexandria, probably on the site of the modern 
Candahar. At the foot of the high range of the Hindu 
Kush, a complex mass of mountains which divides southern 
from central, eastern from western Asia, called Paropa- 
nisus, the army passed the winter, and yet another city, 
named after their leader, was founded somewhere to the 
north of Cabul, Alexandria of the Caucasus. In the early 
spring the difficult mountain ranges which protected Bac- 
tria were crossed, the troops suffering much from the cold 
and from the lack of food. They were obliged to subsist 
on raw meat and on herbs instead of bread. After resting 
the army, Alexander led them on through an arid plain 
to Bactria, the chief city of the satrapy. (329-28 b.c.) 

Bessus, the pretender, had tried to hinder the progress 
of the Greeks by laying waste the country in front of them, 
but as soon as they drew near, his horsemen deserted him 



36 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

and he fled across the Oxus. Alexander lost no time in 
following him up. The pursuit carried him through Sog- 
diana, where he crossed the Oxus on the rafts, made of 
inflated skins, such as are still in use to-day. The river was 
passed at a point where it was not a mile wide, at Kilif, and 
from thence the road was taken to Maracanda, a town 
whose old name is now thinly disguised as Samarcand. 
Bessus was deserted by his supporters, who thought that 
they would be glad to secure peace by his surrender. They 
abandoned him, and he was found by a division of the 
Greek army in a walled village, and was finally sent in 
chains to Bactria, after Alexander had charged him with 
the murder of Darius, his kinsman and benefactor. 

The ardor for annexing the Far Eastern division of the 
Persian Empire to his rule spurred Alexander on, now 
that the rebellion of Bessus had so unexpectedly failed. 
He purposed to make, not the Oxus, but the Tanais his 
frontier on the northeast. The resistance seemed easily 
overcome; the seven strongholds of the Sogdians were oc- 
cupied, and on the banks of the Jaxartes, or Tanais, at a 
point which is the gate of communication between south- 
western Asia and China, the pass over the Tian-shan moun- 
tains, Alexander set the boundary of his conquests in this 
direction, by founding a new city called Alexandria the 
Ultimate, in later days Khodjend. While he was planning 
his new town, the country rose in revolt, for the chieftains 
of Sogdiana had no mind to lose their freedom. The small 
Macedonian garrisons left in the strongholds a short time 
before were overpowered, and the city of Maracanda was 
being besieged. The news of the revolt had spread far 
and wide, and the various Scythian tribes were hurrying to 
join in driving out the invaders. Alexander quickly recov- 
ered the strongholds, burning five of them, but at CyropoHs 
there was stout resistance, and he received a wound. The 
inhabitants of all were removed and forcibly transplanted 
as citizens of the new Alexandria. (328 B.C.) 

It was not possible to go to the rescue of Maracanda 
because of the threatening attitude of the Scythian tribes, 
who were preparing to descend upon Alexandria, which 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 37 

was only separated from them by the river Tanais. The 
danger of being rushed by these barbarous hordes was 
imminent. The new city, therefore, was made capable of 
resistance; in the short period of twenty days it was sur- 
rounded with walls of unburnt clay. But Alexander de- 
termined also to strike terror by aggressive action. He 
brought up to the banks of the river engines which threw 
stones and darts among the enemy and forced them to 
retreat from the stream. Then the Greek army crossed, 
and the Scythians were soon routed. The king, with his 
cavalry, pursued them some distance in their own territory. 
The heat was intense and Alexander was made dangerously 
ill by drinking the water along the line of march. 

On his recovery he had to deal with a difficult revolt in 
Sogdiana, again led by Spitamenes, who had figured in the 
previous uprising and who this time had succeeded in 
cutting off a detachment of Macedonian troops sent in 
pursuit of him. It is recounted that the fear of a disaster 
made such a serious impression on the conqueror that he 
covered the distance to Samarcand, over 150 miles, in 
three days. Spitamenes did not wait to try conclusions 
with the Greeks, but abandoned the siege, drawing off hur- 
riedly in a westward direction, closely pursued by Alex- 
ander. The Persian leader and his Scythian supporters 
were driven into the wastes across the river Sogda, and 
Alexander, after ravaging the province of Sogdiana, crossed 
into western Bactria and passed the winter at Zariaspa, one 
of the chief cities of that region. 

While residing here, the trial of the pretender Bessus 
was begun. He was condemned to mutilation and to die 
on the cross at Ecbatana. This type of punishment was 
alien to Greek feeling and tradition, but it is not necessary 
to say that Alexander's apologists have argued the neces- 
sity of conforming to the habits of Oriental races when 
they are to be ruled successfully by outsiders. Alexander 
himself, as he had never assimilated the best traditions 
of Greece, seemed ready enough to adopt Oriental customs 
either to heighten his own dignity in Persia or to impress 
the Persians that he was the legitimate successor of Darius. 



38 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

The colloquial axiom, " the longest way round is the 
shortest way home," can be applied to the science of govern- 
ment and politics, and it is more than probable that the Hel- 
lenization of Asia would have had less of the pinchbeck 
quality if Alexander had been trained in Sparta rather than 
in Macedon. In any case, we know that his abandonment 
of the homely traits characteristic of the relations between 
a Greek commander and his soldiers made him unpopular, 
and that, especially, the favor shown by him to the Per- 
sians who sided with him was distasteful to the Mace- 
donians. His execution of Parmenio savored of oriental 
despotism, and during this winter there were open signs of 
discontent in the camp. (328-27 B.C.) 

The winter quarters were changed to Maracanda on 
account of the restlessness among the natives, and in the 
relaxation from the strict discipline the soldiers and their 
leaders spent -much of their time in carousing. On one 
occasion when Alexander and his companions were excited 
with wine, the king was made indignant at some slighting 
reference to his military exploits made by his foster-brother 
Clitus, who appealed to some verses of Euripides which 
signify that the army does the work and the general reaps 
the glory. Alexander in his drunken passion hurled a 
spear at the offender, and Clitus fell dead. The fatal issue 
of this drunken quarrel was followed by three days' pas- 
sionate remorse, and Alexander lay in his tent sleepless and 
refused food. The fact that he had murdered his intimate 
friend could not be glossed over even if the army were 
willing to exculpate their leader, by giving Clitus a post- 
mortem trial, or by their ascribing the act to the Dioscuri, 
whose festival was being celebrated at the time. 

The excitable temperament of Alexander, unfortunately, 
cannot always be ascribed to intemperance in drink. He 
began to be intoxicated with the idea that he was a semi- 
divine being, and he undertook to act the role of an 
avenging deity, in executing a ruthless sentence of destruc- 
tion on a small Greek colony in Sogdiana, where dwelt the 
descendants of the people of Branchidae, who generations 
before had betrayed to the Persians the treasures of a 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 39 

temple of Apollo not far from Miletus. The act had 
never been forgotten, and now Alexander caused all the 
inhabitants of the place to be massacred, and every vestige 
of it to be destroyed. An action like this was alien to 
the spirit of free Greece, and it marks the king's progress 
in Oriental despotism. It is all the more a witness to his 
personal degradation that the Milesian men in his own 
army, to whom Alexander wished to leave the decision, 
could not themselves agree on the fate of the Branchidae, 
and hence the initiative in the massacre was due to the 
savage sentiments of their leader. 

The pacification of Sogdiana took some time, owing to 
the rugged nature of the regions in the southern part of 
the province, but the campaign is chiefly noteworthy be- 
cause it resulted in the marriage of Alexander with Roxane, 
the daughter of a native chieftain who had gallantly de- 
fended against the Macedonians a mountain fastness called 
the Sogdian Rock. It had never been noted in the career 
of the youthful conqueror that he was susceptible to the 
influence of women. Hence this sudden attachment was 
as unexpected as it was unpopular in the army. They dis- 
liked to have their king ally himself with an alien, and 
their lack of sympathy was accentuated because Alexan- 
der chose to marry his bride after the fashion of her 
country. 

The influence of the Oriental environment was seen also 
in the introduction of Persian court ceremonial. The king 
desired to make the custom of obeisance to royalty used 
by the Persians applicable also to the Greeks. Callisthenes, 
a nephew of Aristotle, who was attached to the army as 
official historiographer of the campaign, earned Alexander's 
resentment because he sturdily refused to adopt the Per- 
sian ceremonial in the king's presence. He was soon after- 
wards charged with being involved in a plot to murder 
Alexander, which originated because of the resentment held 
against the king by the royal pages, when one of their 
number, Hermolaus, was flogged and reduced from his 
position for a breach of etiquette in a boar hunt at which 
Alexander was present. Callisthenes, apparently because 



40 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

he was an intimate friend of Hermolaus and therefore 
assumed to be an accomplice in the plot, was hanged. 

Three years had now passed since the death of Darius; 
Alexander had done in the interior of Asia a work which 
no western conqueror has accomplished since on so large 
a scale. Even to-day the effective occupation by Russia of 
the lands once included in the Persian Empire falls short 
of Alexander's achievement, because Afghanistan, included 
in his conquests, is still an autonomous state. It will have 
been already noticed that much attention had to be given 
while the Macedonian army was in these Far Eastern prov- 
inces, to their protection against the nomad tribes on their 
frontiers. These operations in Bactria and Sogdiana were 
a necessary part of the conquests of Persia, since these 
remote provinces acted as a barrier against the savage 
tribes of the central Asiatic steppes, who might at any 
time by joint action overrun the civilization of the regions 
south of them. The special care shown by Alexander in 
the construction of settlements in this region is an evidence 
of his desire to make them centers of civilizing influence 
by which the restless herdsmen might be trained to orderly 
methods of life. The experiment failed, but it was a 
brilliant vision — a vision which might have become a reality 
if the conqueror had lived the normal span of years. 

The beating down of all opposition in the enormously 
extensive empire which the defeat of Darius had laid at 
his feet had now been accomplished. If Alexander had 
been a statesman and nothing else, he would have stayed 
his hand, because the consolidation of the territory he had 
overrun was a work demanding the time and the talents 
of the greatest genius. But Alexander had not the temper 
of a Roman proconsul, capable and zealous to solve large 
political problems. He was young enough to be influenced 
by the spirit of adventure, and unlike Caesar and Napoleon, 
had sometimes no deeply laid scheme in his military 
exploits. 

There was no political or military necessity summoning 
Alexander to the conquest of India, but there was the irre- 
sistible charm of novelty exerted by the unknown, the ambi- 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 41 

tion to penetrate into regions untrodden before by any 
Greek, and with this feehng of the conqueror the modern 
world is able to sympathize. He was lured also by the 
legendary stories of the visits to India of the god Dionysus 
and the hero Herakles. The mystical, superstitious traits 
in Alexander's character could easily be stimulated, as we 
have already seen, to emulation with the divinities of his 
people, and he was also glad to afford proof that he could 
effect a conquest attempted without success by Cyrus and 
Semiramis. 

The actual military difficulties of the undertaking were 
not great, for though the Indians were brave and warlike, 
and though they had a well-populated land to draw from, 
they were not a national unity. As the Indian states were 
constantly at war with one another, there would be 
an opportunity of securing allies in the peninsula. There 
was no difficulty in securing recruits for the expedition, 
although it is true a large detachment of the army had well- 
understood motives for desiring to be left in Bactria; but 
some of the best Asiatic warriors from these regions were 
enrolled, 30,000 in number, and the levies with which Alex- 
ander now prepared to descend on India were certainly twice 
as great as those with which he had left Macedon seven 
years before. His army was now a great cosmopolitan 
community, an organism resembling the mercenary armies 
of the Middle Ages, in the times of the Condottieri. It was 
self-supporting and self-sufficient in more senses than one, 
for it included artisans, engineers, physicians, diviners, 
literary men, athletes, secretaries, clerks, musicians, as well 
as a host of women and slaves. 

Most of the states in northern India at this time were 
inhabited by what is often called an Aryan stock, the 
descendants of a succession of waves of emigration through 
the northwestern hills from central Asia. They had given 
up their nomadic life and reached the agricultural stage. 
The Brahman caste system, with its asceticism, and with 
its power of directive guidance in the state, according to 
the dictates of a religious sect, already dominated the life 
of India, and the country as a whole was made up of small 



42 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

principalities and village communities with no common 
bond of union. 

Alexander effected his entrance into this new world by- 
marching from Nicsea (probably to be identified with 
Cabul) along the Cabul river and then proceeded through 
the now well-known Khyber Pass. For the purpose of 
securing his communications much time had to be spent 
in warfare with the brave inhabitants of the Himalaya 
Mountains. Many fortresses were taken, the most remark- 
able of these exploits being the capture of the rock of 
Aormas, which probably lies on the right bank of the Indus, 
some sixty miles above the junction of that river with the 
Cabul. The two tribes whose resistance gave the most 
trouble were the Aspasians and the Assacenes, dwelling in 
localities which can now be identified as being parts of 
Chitral in the Pangkan and Swat valleys. 

This hard preliminary campaign lasted all the winter; 
in the spring the Indus was crossed and a three days' march 
was made eastward to Taxila, a rich country, whose prince, 
along with lesser princes, gave a friendly welcome to the 
conqueror. But this friendly attitude was not taken by 
Porus, the ruler of the region farther south, who sent a 
formal defiance to Alexander, and prepared to resist the 
invaders by collecting an army of from thirty to forty thou- 
sand men. With this he encamped on the river Hydaspes 
and prepared to contest its passage. Alexander transported 
the boats, which he had constructed for crossing the Indus, 
to the Hydaspes, and took up a position on the right bank 
of the stream, near Jalalpur, in view of the army of Porus, 
who had collected a large number of elephants, a formidable 
obstacle to the effective use of the Greek cavalry. (326 b.c.) 

In the face of an enemy so placed the transit of the river 
was impossible, for the edge of the stream was slimy, 
making an insecure footing for the soldiers, and the horses, 
terrified by the presence of the elephants, could not be kept 
in control and would certainly be lost. Besides, Porus kept 
a sharp eye on all the fords near his camping ground. Alex- 
ander kept the enemy busy by making various feints as if 
he were about to attempt to pass the stream. It was the 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 43 

rainy season, and the Indian soldiers and elephants were 
kept in battle array at the threatened points, exposed for 
hours to the force of the wind and rain. Porus began to 
think that the Greeks were afraid to force the passage, 
and these manoeuvers were continued until he was off his 
guard. 

Some sixteen miles below the Greek encampment, where 
the river made a bend, there was a wooded island which 
hid the right shore from observation. Taking advantage 
of this, and also of the fact that on his side of the river 
there was a thick forest, Alexander managed to bring his 
boats, which were made of skins, to a place opposite the 
island, and at the same time he marched some of his troops 
down the stream, leading them by a detour some distance 
from the bank, in order to prevent the ..enemy from detect- 
ing his operations. The rest of the Greeks were left at 
the original camping ground or were posted along the 
river at different points, with directions to cross and aid 
him at the proper moment. 

The actual crossing of the division under his command 
was done under his own eyes. Regiments of heavy-armed 
men were left on the right bank in anticipation of a pos- 
sible rear attack by Abisares, prince of Cashmir, who, it was 
known, had promised to assist Porus in resisting the in- 
vading army. The passage was facilitated by the stormy 
weather which prevailed during the night. The Indian 
outposts heard nothing, and Alexander led the way safely 
past the island to the opposite shore, where, though some 
difficulty was caused by mistaking an islet for the mainland, 
the cavalry were disembarked and put in battle array. The 
whole number of troops under Alexander's command were 
6000 hypaspists, 4000 light-armed foot, 5000 cavalry, in- 
cluding 1000 Scythian archers. In the meantime the Indian 
outposts had ridden away to announce to Porus what had 
happened and to prepare him for the news of the Greek 
advance. Alexander went swiftly forward, taking with him 
all the cavalry, and he soon met and defeated a detachment 
of 1000 Indian horsemen and 160 chariots under the com- 
mand of the son of Porus. 



44 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

The Indian king himself was advancing with the bulk 
of his army, and he drew up his line of battle as soon as 
he found a piece of sandy ground suitable for displaying 
the cavalry and elephants. In front he placed 200 elephants 
at intervals of 100 feet, and behind them his infantry to 
the number of 20,000. In the wings his cavalry were drawn 
up, about 4000 in all. Alexander placed the pick of his 
army, the hypaspists, immediately in front of the elephants. 
The use of these animals in battle was still a strange sight 
to the Greeks, and the Indian fighting line seemed to them 
like a city wall with towers. Porus did not think that his 
foes would venture to advance through the spaces left 
between the elephants. He argued that the horses would 
be terror-stricken and the foot would be met by the Indian 
foot soldiers if they tried to attack the elephants from the 
side, and that they would hesitate to move directly against 
them for fear of being trodden down by their onslaught. 

Exactly how the Indian infantry were armed is left uncer- 
tain. They probably had not the solidity of the Greek 
phalanx and were depended upon only to cover the work 
of the elephants. Alexander kept his infantry in reserve 
until he was able to confuse the line of the enemy by 
a cavalry attack. His cavalry he directed to spread out 
and attack not only in front but on the flanks as well. This 
manoeuver was executed with practised precision, and 
neither the Indian chariots nor their horse could withstand 
the furious onslaught of the Greek squadrons, and soon 
retired behind the elephants with the Macedonians in close 
pursuit. As the elephants wheeled round, passing through 
the infantry in order to meet the Macedonians, the quick 
advance was blocked; the horses could not be induced to 
charge. They were obliged to retire; then Porus, on his 
side, vigorously attacked both the Macedonian cavalry and 
the phalanx. 

The fight was now a general one. The Greek authorities 
paint this stage of the battle in superlative diction, describ- 
ing how the elephants pressed through the thickly packed 
masses in front of them, rending and trampling the soldiers 
and horses as they went, while the engines on their backs 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 45 

scattered destruction far and wide. But the Macedonians 
finally won by striking down the elephants' drivers and 
destroying the turrets they were in, and so wounded 
the beasts themselves that they ceased to attack. With 
the elephants rendered useless, the chance of victory for 
the Indians was gone. Their infantry was not sufficiently 
disciplined to make any use of the confusion caused in the 
Greek ranks by the work of the elephants. Besides, the 
Macedonian cavalry had in the first stage of the engage- 
ment got so far into the Indian lines, that they remained 
not only on the field of battle, but actually were, as the 
engagement advanced, behind both the enemy's infantry 
and the elephants as well. When the Indian cavalry tried 
to take a hand in the fight and leave the part of the field 
where the elephants were in action, the Greek horse, having 
a superiority in numbers, forced them back. 

The Greek infantry phalanx had been ordered by Alex- 
ander to keep its ground, but when the cavalry fight made 
it impossible for the Indians to move forward, the Greek 
foot soldiers drew away from their first position, where they 
were liable to a frontal attack by the elephants, and driving 
the elephants back, exposed the enemy to an attack by 
the Macedonian horse. Unprotected as the Indians were 
on both sides, they could not escape defeat, and at this 
point of the battle they suffered severely; most of the 
elephants and King Porus himself were taken prisoners. 

The Greek historian, Arrian, says that the Macedonian 
loss was only 310 dead, mostly horsemen; but as other 
authorities add 700 foot soldiers, it seems likely that the 
battle was a stubborn one, for there were only 11,000 men 
engaged in Alexander's army. The fact, too, that the 
use of elephants became customary in the wars fought by 
Alexander's successors, some of whom were present at 
the battle of Hydaspes, proves that the fight with Porus 
must have made an impression on his opponents, and this 
places it in a different category from the easier victories 
over the Persians. Alexander treated his defeated antag- 
onist with magnanimity and erected his kingdom into a 
vassal state; but as safeguards of his loyalty, directed that 



46 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

two garrison cities, Bucephala and Nicaea, should be estab- 
lished in his domains, one on either side of the Hydaspes 
near the site of the battle. A lieutenant, Crateros, was 
left to carry out these building plans, while Alexander 
turned to the conquest of the neighboring tribes. The only 
notable difficulty was the taking of the town of Sangala, 
the chief citadel of the free and warlike Cathaeans, which 
had been strongly fortified and which had to be taken by 
storm. 

The general result was that the Punjab was annexed to 
Alexander's empire and placed in the hands of vassal 
princes. From this region the Greek army advanced to 
the river Hyphasis, reaching it at a point higher up than 
its junction with the Sutlej. This was the extreme limit of 
Alexander's march. He would have gladly gone farther, 
for the whole of India might well have become a subject 
state; but the army had suffered from the discomforts of 
the rainy season, and they were weary of campaigning. 
The horses were worn out, the armor and accoutrements 
in bad condition. The temper of the troops, devoted though 
they were to their commander, left no doubt that they would 
mutiny if Alexander refused to turn back. He told the 
officers he would go on himself, and that they could return 
to Macedonia and let the Macedonians know that they had 
abandoned their king in a hostile land. 

But appeals and threats alike failed to convince the army 
that their view of the situation was unreasonable. The 
sacrifices were found to be unfavorable, and persuaded by 
this intimation of the disfavor of the gods, the king con- 
sented to return. On the bank of the Hyphasis twelve 
altars were erected of large size, as lofty as the walls of 
a city, to mark the limits of Macedonian conquests, and 
as a thank-offering to the gods for their protection through 
the hazards of long-continued warfare in strange lands. 
The army then retired to the Hydaspes. 

Alexander was an explorer as well as a conqueror, and 
his disappointment at this enforced withdrawal from the 
prosecution of his march must have been that of a man 
who was within reach of the goal and just failed to attain 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 47 

it. According to the geographical notions of his day, he 
was near the certain limit of the world ; he knew nothing of 
the great Indian peninsula, and of course nothing of the 
vast extent of Siberia or the Chinese Empire. He sup- 
posed that the Ganges flowed into an eastern sea which 
was continuous with the Caspian and which washed the 
shores of Scythia and the base of the high mountains he 
had lately passed through. On the river Hydaspes, a fleet 
had already been under construction; as soon as it was 
ready he embarked on it a part of his best troops, while 
the mass of the army, in two divisions, moved down the 
stream. The route followed was along the Hydaspes to 
its confluence with the Akesines, then down this stream to 
the Indus and the Indus itself to the Delta. 

From the military point of view, this concluding stage 
of the Indian expedition offers little of special interest. 
The inhabitants of the country either submitted to or fled 
from the Greek army, and various strongholds were taken 
by storm. In an assault on one of them, held by the Mal- 
lians, who dwelt in the southern Punjab, the king, who had 
pressed forward in the midst of the enemy, found himself 
separated from the main body of his followers and was dan- 
gerously wounded. In the region the army traversed several 
colonies were founded ; another Alexandria rose at the point 
where the Akesines flows into the Indus, and at Pattala a 
harbor and navy yard were built. The conquered portion 
of India was organized in three satrapies, one of which 
was under Porus, who had a free position as a vassal 
prince, for in his territory there were no Macedonian 
garrisons. 

But the real subjugation of the country had not been 
effected by the spectacular march through it; as soon as 
the Greeks turned their backs, an uprising took place. 
Before the whole army reached Pattala, a part had been 
detached with directions to march west to Arachosia, and 
to wait in Caramania till it was joined there by the main 
division. The fleet was placed under the command of 
Nearchus, a Cretan, who was to take it along the coast 
of the Indian Ocean and finally into the Persian Gulf. 



48 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

Alexander, at the head of the rest of the army, took the 
road through Gedrosia. 

The difficulties of the return were considerable. The 
men under Alexander suffered terribly in passing a desert 
country before they reached, after sixty days' slow progress, 
the capital of Gedrosia, Pura. In the farther stretch to 
Caramania there was also exhausting work, but these 
trials marked the end of the expedition, for Crateros, who 
had led the rest of the troops by Arachosia, soon ar- 
rived, and news came of the landing of the fleet after 
a skilfully managed cruise of seventy-five days through 
unknown waters on the coasts of Caramania. A year had 
now passed (325 B.C.) since the beginning of the return 
home from India. During the course of the winter the 
army returned to Susa, thus concluding this remarkable 
adventure of Far Eastern conquest. 



ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE 

It had now been five years, from the summer of 330, 
since Alexander had left Ecbatana in pursuit of Darius. 
His presence was urgently needed, for the government of 
the empire was in chaotic state so far as the central admin- 
istration was concerned. Fortunately the attempts at an 
uprising had generally been feeble, and were easily and 
loyally suppressed by the satraps where they did occur. 
Only one gave trouble, a revolt in Bactria, initiated first 
of all by Greek mercenaries and taken up by the native 
inhabitants as far as the border of Scythia. This lasted 
some time, and peace was not restored until after Alex- 
ander's death. 

But the maladministration of the conquered provinces 
was more serious than these uprisings. During Alexander's 
absence in the Far East there had been boundless liberty 
in the financial plundering of the people. Peculation was 
the rule everywhere, and it was common to the Persian 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 49 

official class, to whom the government of the satrapies had 
been intrusted. Trained as these officers had been in mal- 
administration and corruption, they had no notion of fol- 
lowing different standards, simply because there was a dif- 
ferent ruler. While Alexander was in Bactria he had been 
forced to deprive several satraps of their governments. It 
was time for the strong arm of the king to be felt, and 
there was no doubt about his intentions and aims. Many 
Persian satraps were executed and their places taken by 
Macedonian officers. But while Alexander had been away 
the infection had spread to European office-holders, both 
military and civil. We hear, for example, of the death 
penalty being inflicted on Greek commanders of the troops 
in Media, who had plundered graves and temples and had 
signalized their rule over the subject population by sys- 
tematic oppression. 

Among the guiltiest of this class was the minister of 
finance, Harpalus, who treated the state's money as his 
private property, had brought over from Athens a com- 
pany of gay comrades, and was living the easy, reckless 
life of an Oriental satrap. His previous record had been 
anything but clean; before the battle of Issus he had been 
obliged to return to Greece and had only come back to 
Asia because he had received the royal pardon. He knew 
that there was no chance of finding the king amenable to 
excuses or explanations; so with 5000 talents taken from 
the treasury, he raised a body of 6000 mercenaries and 
departed for the sea coast, hoping to stir up a revolt. The 
scheme was a pitiable failure; no satrap held out a hand 
to him; and finally Harpalus sailed to Athens, where he 
had influence and could count on a welcome, because of 
the strong anti-Macedonian feeling in the city. 

Alexander showed his appreciation of the lesson of Har- 
palus' official career by ordering the governors of the prov- 
inces to dismiss all soldiers they had collected on their own 
authority. Now that the period of military expansion was 
closed, the king devoted himself to the organization of the 
empire, following the lines he had worked out originally, 
which tended to the amalgamation of the Greek and Persian 



50 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

elements. This ideal survived the experience of mal- 
administration, and Alexander held fast to it, despite the 
opposition of the officers of his army. He seems to have 
believed firmly in the possibility of educating politically 
the Asiatic peoples so that they could be ruled without 
display of despotic power, and he was just as firm in 
trusting to the loyalty of the Persian ruling class to carry 
out this program of interracial conciliation. In doing so 
he failed to take account of the Persian's deep-rooted dis- 
like of the Greeks, which with Oriental wiliness his new 
subjects could conceal, but which was ever present as an 
inducement to them to take advantage of the first oppor- 
tunity that offered to throw off the yoke imposed upon them 
by the conquest. 

Alexander planned to make his scheme a success by mar- 
rying the daughters of the Persian official class to the 
Macedonian officers. He led the way by claiming, as the 
successor of the Great King, the right to have more than 
one legitimate wife, and after his return from India he 
added to his royal household a daughter of Darius, Stateira, 
and a daughter of Ochus, Parysatis. Alexander's close 
friend, Hephsestion, received another daughter of Darius, 
and altogether eighty of the high officers in command of the 
Macedonian army were married to Persian women of high 
degree. The wedding festivities were made a national af- 
fair, and took place at Susa on the same day with great 
ceremonial, all the brides receiving from Alexander mar- 
riage portions. The Macedonian private soldiers, who fol- 
lowed the example of their chief on this occasion, were 
richly rewarded. 

It is said that the officers were as dissatisfied with the 
matrimonial schemes of the king as they had been with his 
plans for further conquest in India; in any case, it is 
known that on the king's death there was a general move- 
ment among them to get rid of their Persian helpmates. 
The discontent among the rank and file of Alexander's 
followers with his program of social equality between Greek 
and Persian could not be appeased, even when he paid 
their debts at the time of the *' Union of the Two Races " 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 51 

festival, an act of bounty which cost him about $5,ocx),ooo. 
The hostihty to Persian influence was accentuated by the 
introduction of foreign troops into the army. This was 
naturally a step required by the necessity of raising a force 
greater than Greece could possibly supply. That thinly 
populated country must have been already drained to the 
point of exhaustion by the demands already made upon it 
to fill up the losses during the years of constant campaign- 
ing. And as a matter of fact, we know that a year and 
a half after the passage of the Hellespont with 35,000 
men, Alexander led to battle at Arbela about 60,000, and 
in the years during which the expedition was moving in 
the Far East, the various additional troops must have 
equaled altogether 50,000 men. The substitution of Persian 
contingents for Greek soldiers was a matter of plain neces- 
sity. They received lower pay, they cost less to feed, 
without considering the saving made in the high cost of 
transportation of bodies of men from continental Greece to 
the interior of Asia. 

Orders had therefore been given to draw 30,000 young 
men from the conquered provinces and to prepare them 
for military services according to Macedonian methods. A 
further and more radical stage in the amalgamation policy 
was reached when Persians were enrolled in the Mace- 
donian phalanx and Asiatic horsemen in the elite regiment 
of the Hetaeroi; even in the life guards distinguished 
Persians were received, and the command of that force 
was assigned to a warrior from Bactria, Hystaspes. 

These leveling measures were more than the Macedonian 
veterans could endure, and they became openly mutinous 
when Alexander proposed to dismiss those who had been 
longest in the service. The whole army stood together and 
told the king that they would serve no longer, and that 
he would see how he could do without them, now that he 
had his Persians to serve under him. Alexander then set 
to work to organize purely Persian regiments on the Mace- 
donian model, a Persian life guard, a Persian squadron of 
Hetaeroi, and a Persian phalanx. This satisfied the Mace- 
donians, and they were farther placated by being given 



52 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

precedence over the various Persian units of the army. 
Under these conditions, the veterans were wilHng to be dis- 
missed, and they received one talent as a bonus and full 
pay until they were actually on Macedonian soil. More- 
over, the king agreed to provide for the education of their 
children. Ten thousand men on these terms returned to 
Greece. 

A more effective means for bringing together the two 
races on an equal footing was the establishment of military 
colonies throughout the empire. At an early stage of the 
expedition this had been adopted as the readiest way of 
keeping peace in the conquered territory. Tyre and Gaza, 
after the native population had been sold into slavery, 
received a new population of Greek origin. We have al- 
ready noted the extension of this scheme in the Far Eastern 
provinces and in India. Altogether seventy cities are said 
to have been founded by Alexander. These colonies, though 
primarily intended for military purposes, became centers of 
industrial communication and of civilization. The case of 
the Egyptian Alexandria is so well known that it does not 
require to be stressed. Less familiar are the proofs of 
Alexander's sagacity as a founder of flourishing towns in 
other parts of his empire. Alexandria, on the Persian Gulf, 
continued through the whole period of antiquity to be the 
greatest emporium of the whole region of Mesopotamia. 
Alexandria in Arcia (Herat) and Alexandria in Ara- 
chosia (Candahar) are still to-day important towns in 
Persia. 

Despite his absorption in military interests, Alexander 
found time for looking after the economic development of 
his empire. The Indian Ocean was opened to commerce 
by the remarkable voyage of Nearchus which concluded the 
Indian expedition. Attempts were made to circumnavigate 
the Arabian peninsula, and, though they failed, yet a con- 
siderable portion of the coast was explored. The Caspian 
Sea was also the scene of exploring adventures, because 
it was supposed to be a part of the vast ocean by which 
the earth was surrounded. The Tigris was freed from 
obstruction and made navigable; the ancient irrigation 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 53 

canals in Babylonia were restored; and a beginning was 
made in constructing a harbor near Babylon. 

Equally farsighted was Alexander's foundation of a uni- 
fied monetary system for the empire. Under Persian rule 
the custom had been for the satraps to coin silver money, 
while the coinage of gold was reserved to the Great King. 
The result was that each province followed its own customs 
and financial chaos prevailed. Alexander reserved the mint- 
ing privilege to the general government; even where pro- 
vincial coining was permitted, the coins were of the same 
general type and bore the name of the king. The only 
exception to this rule is found in the case of the autonomous 
Greek cities on the western coast of Asia. This new 
monetary system was based on that of the Athenians; the 
bimetallic basis, as it had existed in the Persian Empire, 
was abandoned and the silver standard, as used at Athens 
and Corinth, took its place. The reformed monetary system 
of Alexander continued down to Roman times. 

The large hoards of precious metals, which fell into 
Alexander's hands during the course of his conquests, not 
only gave occupation to his mints, but also freed, him from 
financial anxiety. He had begun the expedition in a state 
of insolvency, for he had a debt of 1300 talents with only 
seventy in his war chest to cover it. The maintenance of the 
army required a monthly expenditure of 200 talents, and 
to this 100 talents had to be added for the fleet. The prov- 
inces in western Asia, the first fruits of his victories, could 
not supply a sum so large, and it was lack of money which 
caused Alexander to give up his fleet in the autumn of 334. 
After the battle of Issus and the conquest of the rich 
province of Egypt, there was soon a surplus where there 
had been a deficit, and Alexander was able to send consid- 
erable sums of money to Antipater to help him out in his 
campaign in Greece. 

Rich as were the Persian treasures, they were heavily 
and constantly drawn upon by the ever-developing military 
needs of the conqueror. The whole force under arms, 
including the very numerous garrisons, must have equaled 
100,000 men. This meant at least an expense of 7000 



54 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

talents; to this large sum must be added the drains caused 
by Alexander's generosity, by official peculation such as that 
of Harpalus, and by the gifts to old soldiers, who were 
richly rewarded. The royal household, which was organ- 
ized on the Persian model, was most expensive; the royal 
table alone costing 600 talents. Of course, the receipts 
were large, probably from fifteen to twenty thousand talents 
annually, but Alexandria's budget was far from balancing; 
and at the time of his death, there were contained in all 
the treasuries of the empire only 50,000 talents, about 
$70,000,000, a small sum when the size of the empire is 
taken into account. 

In administering his domains, Alexander showed great 
conservatism; he made few changes, he allowed each of 
the countries which acknowledged the Great King as its 
overlord to retain its particular institutions. One important 
modification he did introduce into the loosely organized and 
haphazard Persian system of rule, the division of power. 
The Persian satrap was generally the sole governor, having 
in his hands the civil, military, and financial administration. 
Alexander limited him to matters of internal administration, 
appointing a financial officer and a military commander 
armed with considerable powers. After the return from 
India, there was a fu4-ther innovation made by the appoint- 
ment of a Chiliarch, as the supreme director and head of 
the provinces, with a place immediately after the monarch 
himself. This official was a part of the governmental 
machinery of the Persian Empire, holding in it the place 
of a Grand Vizier. It was given to Alexander's friend, 
Hephsestion, but after his death it was left vacant. The 
most trusted servant, the actual head of the administration, 
was the Chief Secretary Eumenes from Cardia, a man 
of first-rate military and civil capacity; he was unfailingly 
loyal to his master, and after Alexander's death, suffered 
many vicissitudes because of his devotion to the Mace- 
donian royal house. 

Alexander was not satisfied with the role of conqueror; 
he wished to give his rule in the East that trait of legitimacy 
which the popular Oriental mind required as a stimulus 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 55 

to its loyalty. It was impossible for him to be King of 
Persia by the grace of God, for it was the might of his 
own hand, not the right of succession, that constituted him 
the heir of Darius. This Gordian knot of politics he solved 
in his own direct fashion by directing that divine honors 
should be paid to him by the subject populations. The 
custom of apotheosis originated in Egypt, but it was not 
alien to Greek thought, according to which no deep dis- 
tinction existed between man and divinity. The mythical 
heroes of the Greek people, whom all allowed to have once 
been men, were everywhere honored with altars and sacri- 
fice. Asclepius and Herakles sat on Olympus with the 
greater divinities of a purely spiritual origin. It had be- 
come not unusual in the age preceding Alexander to accord 
divine honors to the living. Such had been the case with 
Clearchus of Heracleia who had been greeted as the son 
of Zeus, and with Dionysius the Younger who had caused 
himself to be honored at Syracuse as the son of Apollo. 
Alexander's achievements, far greater in comparison, gave 
him a right to this distinction during his lifetime; his divine 
origin had, besides, been attested by the Erythrian Sibyl 
and by the oracle at Branchidse; with this theological and 
official stamp all that remained to be done was to give the 
accepted belief a concrete form. The cult of the con- 
queror became a part of the state religion in the Greek 
communities throughout the empire. Whether Alexander 
took the initiative in this form of adulation we do not 
know ; he certainly did not discourage it, and on his return 
from India he did not reject the adulatory form of con- 
gratulation expressed by many Greek states, who instead 
of sending formal deputations, presented the so-called " the- 
ories " usual when the festivals of the gods were celebrated. 
Athens at first resisted this form of transcendent courtesy, 
but finally, in order to avoid offending Alexander, it was 
resolved in the year 324 to enrol the conqueror among the 
gods of the city under the designation of Dionysus. So this 
debasing custom took root in Greece ; the monarch became, 
by a noxious fiction, differentiated from the rest of mortals, 
and the infection spread from Greece to Rome, and later 



56 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

on became crystallized in Christian civilization, through the 
example of the Byzantine court, and under the form of 
monarchy by divine right has not yet disappeared. 

After the dismissal of the veterans from the army at 
Opis, Alexander withdrew from the plains of the Tigris, 
and according to the custom of the Persian monarchs spent 
the summer in the highlands of Media. He passed the time 
in relaxation; nautical and athletic festivals were held, in 
which celebrities from Greece took part. When the cooler 
weather began, there were expeditions to repress the bandit 
hill-tribes who dwelt between Ecbatana and Susa, people 
whom the Persians had never succeeded in bringing under 
control. Afterwards, the king returned to Babylon, where 
he received deputations from the Greek states and even 
from Italy. It was thought that an expedition to the west 
was being planned. But the king preferred to give his 
immediate attention to Arabia and, by conquering it, to 
open at last a direct road of communication between the 
interior of Persia and Egypt. 

By June both the fleet and army were ready to start. A 
great banquet was given in honor of Nearchus, the admiral 
who was to undertake the adventurous voyage from the 
Persian Gulf to the Red Sea. The king withdrew from 
the feast and spent the rest of the night in a carouse with 
a friend, Medius. He rose late in the morning and another 
night was spent in excessive drinking. The following day 
he was attacked with fever; he could not walk and had 
to be carried on a couch to the altar, to make the customary 
sacrifices. He spent the day discussing the plans of the 
expedition with Nearchus. In the evening he had himself 
conveyed across the river to a garden villa, hoping for relief 
from its quiet isolation. But for six days the fever con- 
tinued, the king being able only to attend the sacrificial 
ceremonial. His condition grew worse, and he was taken 
back to the palace; he slept a little, but the fever did not 
abate, and when his ofiicers visited him, they saw that he 
had lost the power of speech. There was confusion among 
the soldiers, for it was rumored that their leader was dead ; 
they clamored to be let into the palace, and passing by 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 57 

the bodyguard they circled past the bed of the dying mon- 
arch; but he was not able to speak and only signified by 
movements of his hands and eyes that he recognized them. 
Some of those about him spent the night in the temple of 
Serapis, awaiting an indication of the god that he might 
be transported to the temple as he lay and be healed by 
divine help. But they were warned, it is said, by a voice 
that he was not to be moved, and on the evening of June 
13th he died, before he had completed his thirty-third 
year. 

During the years of Alexander's conquests, the history 
of the Greek states sinks into insignificance. After the battle 
of Issus all hope of defeating Macedon by a combination 
with Persia was abandoned. The confederacy sent con- 
gratulations, and only Sparta stood aloof. Its king, Agis, 
even ventured to declare war, but, after a few small suc- 
cesses, he was defeated in the battle of Megalopolis, losing 
his life in the field. Sparta then sent hostages to Alex- 
ander and was generously treated. Later on he interfered 
again in the affairs of Greece by directing the confederation 
to take back the Greek exiles, 20,000 in number, and so 
mark his overlordship by an era of good feeling. Only two 
states objected, Athens and ^tolia. 

The only exciting incident in continental Greece was con- 
nected with the flight of the faithless finance minister, 
Harpalus, who came to the coast of Attica with 5000 talents, 
a body of mercenaries, and a considerable fleet, hoping to 
stir up a revolt. But the Athenian politicians were too 
cautious to be drawn into an intrigue which would certainly 
have proved dangerous. They seized Harpalus and took 
his treasure, proposing only to surrender this money to 
oflicers expressly sent by Alexander. Half the money taken 
disappeared and there was no official record made of the 
sum received. Demosthenes was involved in the scandal, 
and he emerged from it with a besmirched reputation. 
Harpalus escaped and was soon afterwards murdered. De- 
mosthenes was condemned, imprisoned, and escaped. But 
Greek feeling was not sensitive about a case where it was 
plain that a man had appropriated stolen money for the 



58 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

good of the state, and Demosthenes was praised as a 
patriot. 

Alexander's conquests, both in method and in achieve- 
ment, were but the elaboration of the groundwork laid down 
by Philip his father. The army that conquered Persia and 
invaded India was trained in the campaigns of continental 
Greece, and without this preliminary training in Europe, 
its spectacular successes in Asia would not have been 
possible. Up to the time of Philip of Macedon, warfare in 
Greece had achieved only negative results. It was not sys- 
tematized, no extensive imperial rule had come to the victors 
through any of the decisive battlefields, for these military 
successes were never followed up by a consistent scheme of 
conquest. Philip changed all this, and he brought his devel- 
oped army and his new political policy into close connec- 
tion. Demosthenes himself remarked this contrast, for 
he said that King Philip fought his wars not only with 
a phalanx of heavy-armed men, but with light infantry, 
archers, and cavalry. 

The old campaigning schedule, which consisted in 
ravaging the enemy's territory for a few months, a set 
battle in the open country, and a withdrawal to winter 
quarters, was no longer observed. If the Macedonian king 
did not find his enemy in the field, he besieged his towns, 
using siege engines to bring him to terms. Summer and 
winter were alike used for operations when the old array 
of citizen amateur soldiers had -given place to the profes- 
sional fighters. Alexander's victories were won not only 
on the battlefield, but through the quick following up of 
his victories; the enemies' power of resistance was anni- 
hilated by the rapidity with which a defeated army was 
pursued and never allowed a chance to gather itself to- 
gether again after it was beaten. These cavalry marches in 
the rear of a retreating enemy, or the suddenly delivered 
attacks on a foe preparing to resist, attacks made irrespective 
of mountains and deserts, were as military achievements 
no less remarkable than the set battles and the sieges of 
strongly walled cities and citadels. Supremely character- 
istic of Alexander's strategy was the pursuit after the battle 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 59 

of Gaugamela, when numbers of horses fell on the road 
from exhaustion. 

As a general, Alexander did great deeds and did them in 
an heroic style. He was a warrior distinguished by personal 
bravery, filled with the ardor of combat, eager to be in 
the thickest of the fight, and yet the physical passion of 
the fighter in no way dulled the acute intelligence of the 
general, or made him indifferent to the mastery of details 
in preparing for battle or in following a victory up after 
it had been won. He showed strategical knowledge in 
approaching the enemy and knew how to overcome the 
natural difficulties in his way. So we see him unhesitatingly 
marching through narrow defiles and organizing different 
classes of troops according to the changing conditions which 
confronted him. He showed high capacity in selecting his 
base, in looking after his communications, in providing 
for and provisioning his men. When all was ready, and 
not before, these cautious provisions gave place to the 
impetuous onslaught in battle and the untiring pursuit of 
the defeated enemy. But the duties of generalship, com- 
plicated as they were, were not allowed to interfere with 
the " joy of fighting.'^ Alexander in every fight led his 
cavalry in person ; whenever a breach was made in a fortifi- 
cation he was in the first rank ; whenever a town was taken 
he was the first to scale the wall. 

He seemed instinctively to have taken in the significance 
of the enlarged scale on which warfare under him was 
conducted. He had to solve untried problems, due to the 
vast extent of territory he traversed, so different in every 
way from the restricted limits of continental Greece. The 
students of strategy have especially admired his originality 
in the systematic following up of a victory, an element in 
successful warfare not dreamed of by the citizen generals 
of Greece. In the Peloponnesian war it never occurred to 
the Spartans when they had defeated the Athenians to 
besiege Athens. But after Issus, a most decisive victory, 
Alexander showed the utmost resourcefulness in the long 
seven months' siege of Tyre, and finally took it by storm. 
The same mobility of generalship is noted in India, where 



6o THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

he did not hesitate in the face of a division of elephants, 
an unknown arm in warfare, to cross a river and deHver 
a frontal attack. 

The army, which never failed to respond to the ever- 
developing visions and schemes of its commander, until 
he had carried it to the eastern limits of the known 
world in his career of conquest, was at the very beginning 
of Alexander's career trained for any military project he 
might propose. It was composed of seasoned officers and 
men, who had proved their mettle and gained their laurels 
under Philip while he was bringing his army to the highest 
pitch of excellence. In the list of great Greek military 
leaders, Philip is placed by the side of Epaminondas, the 
Theban, the man who revolutionized the Greek art of war- 
fare by a fine stroke of genius. It had been noted that 
in the Greek battles, where the phalanx had become the con- 
trolling factor, its right wing was frequently victorious in 
both opposing armies. This phenomenon was simply due 
to the fact that the Greek heavy-armed soldier carried a 
shield on his left arm and naturally tended to move in an 
oblique direction towards the right hand. The chief inno- 
vations introduced by Epaminondas were the strengthening 
of the left wing by increasing its depth — it was made fifty 
men deep — and the holding back of the right wing as the 
whole phalanx advanced in battle array. With the increased 
depth of the phalanx, the front was necessarily shortened, 
and in order to prevent flanking operations, Epaminondas 
made great use of cavalry, in protecting the flanks of his 
men from an encircling movement on the part of the 
enemy, whose phalanx, since it was not so deep (being the 
old shape), would stretch out on both sides beyond the lines 
of the Theban line. As a general, Philip accepted these 
new tactical principles originated by Epaminondas, and 
applying them to Macedonian conditions, made of the Mace- 
donian army a wonderfully effective military machine. 

Macedonia was peopled by peasants and herdsmen, and 
up to PhiHp's time they were an untrained mass, insuf- 
ficiently armed, not able to contend with the armies of the 
rest of Greece. There was a landed aristocracy in Macedon, 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 6i 

forming a special warrior class, who fought as cavalry. 
Using these elements and adding to them Greek mer- 
cenaries, King Philip had created a military force far su- 
perior to any that Greece had ever seen before. 

The Greek cavalry moved in loose formation, the horse- 
men wore armor, and as arms they had a shield, sword, 
and spear, the spear being used rather for throwing than 
for striking, as is the case with the modern lance, with the 
whole momentum of the moving mass, man and horse. The 
troops of the Macedonian cavalry, formed of the nobles of 
the land, were called the followers of the king, *' Hetairoi." 
They bore a shield and a spear for casting or thrusting, 
and a sword, and were always given a crucial position in 
an engagement. As contrasted with Greek cavalry generally, 
the Macedonians showed superior training and discipline; 
they moved together and behaved in a fight, not as indi- 
vidual warriors, but as tactical units, and were controlled 
in their movements by a single will. Such development of 
cavalry was unfamiliar to the Greek republics, which con- 
fined themselves to the technical training of the phalanx. 

The Macedonian foot were the special creation of Philip, 
and were named by him " the followers on foot." They 
fought in the ordinary phalanx formation, but closer to- 
gether than was usual, and used long spears, so that sev- 
eral lines were enabled at once to engage in actual hand- 
to-hand fighting. The spear was so constructed as to weight, 
thickness, and length that it could reach the opposing line 
and yet be firmly grasped. The ordinary spear was some- 
what over six feet in length, but the Macedonian phalanx 
depended for its success not so much on man-to-man fighting 
as on the irresistible impact of the whole. When it was 
acting on the defensive, it was virtually impenetrable. Its 
disadvantage was in its lack of individual initiative; the 
soldiers were machines rather than fighting men. It was 
heavy in its movements and could be thrown into disorder 
more easily than the older Greek phalanx with its looser 
formation. The elite corps, the hypaspists, were more 
lightly armed than the men in the phalanx, and so moved 
more freely. In Alexander's battles they were the connect- 



62 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

ing link between the cavalry and heavy mass of the phalanx, 
which advanced slowly forward. As managed by Alex- 
ander, these various arms seem to have worked admirably 
together, all sharing in the activity of a general offensive 
movement. It should be added that Alexander was also 
indebted to his father for much of the advance made in the 
art of besieging. He constantly used siege engines, and 
we have noticed how much he depended on their successful 
employment at Tyre and Halicarnassus. 

Posterity has justly selected the epithet " great " as most 
fitting to be coupled with Alexander's name, and he has 
this honor for more than one reason. It is perhaps less 
contested than in the case of any other of the world's lead- 
ing personalities, Charles the Great alone excepted, for 
Charles, like Alexander, introduced a new age of the world's 
history. Great as were the successes of Alexander, they 
constitute less of a claim on the personal admiration of 
posterity than his knightly qualities as a warrior, and the 
charm and impetuosity of youth. His great victories were 
won between the years of twenty-one and twenty-five. In 
the space of thirteen years there are crowded together events 
and achievements that would exalt the longest life of the 
greatest man. 

His sudden and premature death did him a kind of poetic 
justice, because his temperament cannot be coupled con- 
sistently with the characteristics of old age or even with 
the middle period of man's life. His body and his brain 
had been under a tremendous pressure, which even a strong 
constitution could not resist. It was this restive youth- 
fulness that spurred him on to adventures which were pur- 
poseless when looked at from the point of view of the 
mature statesman, such as the expedition to India, an un- 
calculated move not to be understood except as due to the 
stimulus of an explorer's curiosity and the desire to accom- 
plish a feat unheard of before. 

The impulsiveness and emotionalism of Alexander in com- 
bination with his military genius produced results un- 
precedented in history. His career is that of a Homeric 
hero on a larger stage. It is not surprising that his 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 63 

conquests almost defy criticism and make a personal 
estimate seem artificial. He did so much that it appar- 
ently makes little difference what he was, for his actions 
speak for themselves, and they tell their tale like a fairy 
story, without any need of analysis. It is obviously unfair 
to look for constructive statesmanship in a career so short, 
when almost every month was occupied with military cam- 
paigns either planned or in execution. When his life was 
ended, Alexander was still a young man with a fresh and 
vigorous intelligence, open to new impressions. It is haz- 
ardous to infer (as Grote does) that he would have spent 
his life in acts of military aggression or that he would have 
sunk to the position of an Oriental despot, little differing 
from the Persian kings to whose title he succeeded. It is 
safer to put aside these pessimistic historic prognostics of 
what might have been, and to recognize that Alexander, pro- 
vided he kept his mental powers undulled by drink, would 
have remained a Greek and not become a Hun or a Vandal. 

His enthusiasm for absolutism was, when one considers 
his age and how deeply he was involved in military plans 
and schemes, less of a reflection on himself than a curse 
to his followers and successors, who kept faithful to the 
personal tradition of their leader and made the Helleniza- 
tion of Asia untrue to so much that was best in Greek 
political life and thought. It was, as Ranke says, a break 
in their whole national history, for the Greeks to have 
extended over them the kind of authority which was in no 
way different from that against which they had contended 
in warfare for a century. But it must be remembered that 
Alexander had only just begun to rule over Asiatics; he 
had receded before his death from pressing his theory of 
amalgamation to its logical conclusion, and quick as he was 
to feel instinctively the meaning of new conditions, it may 
be fairly supposed that he would have come to recognize 
the value of Aristotle's profoundly wise advice to him, 
that he should behave to the Greeks as a leader or president 
and to the barbarians or non-Greeks as a master. 

We may put to one side all the ingenious speculations as 
to what might have happened if Alexander had reached 



64 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

the ordinary limit of human life, a line of thought which 
Livy seems to have originated, when he tried to foretell 
for his age what would have happened if Alexander 
had taken up the role followed later by his relative, Pyrrhus. 
It is only necessary to say that, so far as Greek affairs were 
concerned, Alexander was the son of his father. His public 
career began when, as Philip's son, he put the finishing 
touches to Philip's program for dominating the free states 
of Greece. So long as Alexander lived, the lines of Mace- 
donian supremacy, the outcome of the battle of Chseronea, 
remained clear and fixed. The destruction of Thebes was 
but the epilogue of Philip's own career. The sentimental 
vein in the nature of Alexander made him patient with the 
somewhat childish and ineffective hostility shown him by 
both Athens and Sparta, venerable names as protagonists 
in the secular struggle with the Persians, whose mantle had 
now fallen on his broader shoulders. 

In Asia his conquests, rather than his half-thought-out 
plans for racial amalgamation, were decisive of future po- 
litical development. There was an expansion of Hellenic 
culture throughout the East, marked by the common use of 
the Greek language and by a general absorption of the 
special traits of Greek social usages and sympathies. The 
civilization, so wrought out and transplanted, lost the crea- 
tiveness and the spontaneity of the small communities of 
continental Greece. The Hellenic spirit lost its potency, 
if we may so phrase it, and in the sphere of government 
especially exhibited disheartening symptoms of selfishness 
and greed. Economically, the opening up of Asia meant 
enlarged facilities for the commercial exploitation of a vast 
and rich territory. It ushered in a period of great indus- 
trial fortunes, it increased opportunities for communication 
both by land and sea, it established higher standards of 
comfort and taste among populations who had lived a crude, 
colorless, and isolated existence. On the basis of Alex- 
ander's conquests a grandiose cosmopolitanism was built up 
in Asia which cast down tribal and racial boundaries and 
made it possible for masses of plain people to gain a liveli- 
hood under tolerable conditions. 




Caesar 

(Naples, Museu 



C-ESAR 



CESAR'S BEGINNINGS 

The progress of an imperial power is obscure even when 
the foundations of its greatness are associated with some 
great mihtary leader or lawgiver, but when one has to give 
a reason why some one political community becomes the 
point of centripetal attraction, and gathers about it, either 
by fear or devotion, the support of large masses of man- 
kind, the efforts of historical analysis are frustrated at 
almost every point. 

The rise of the small town community on the Tiber, 
about whose name there centered for nearly two thousand 
years the dread and the reverence of the progressive nations 
of the world, is veiled in legend. Why did not Palestrina, 
or Cori, or one of the numerous Etruscan cities to the 
north, become the germ of a world-wide rule? Of 
course the answer of the economist is that just because 
Rome is situated on the Tiber, its position gave it 
possibilities of advancement denied to the ordinary hill 
towns of Italy. This explanation may be taken as suf- 
ficient only when one allows that the burghers of Rome 
set out to accomplish what they did, not only because they 
were traders, but because the imaginative and grandiose 
factors in commercial enterprise must have worked in a 
singularly sensitive and highly organized social medium. 

If the rise of the republic of Rome is difficult to account 
for, even more difficult is it to explain why such a com- 
munity endowed with great generals, great statesmen, and 
great patriots, found it impossible so to modify their re- 
publican institutions that the manifest advantages of a sane 
and well-balanced democracy might be retained unimpaired, 

65 



66 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

and might be extended at the same time to conquered races 
and nations. The rigidity of Roman republican institutions 
led to grave and demoralizing social disorders. The vic- 
tories of Roman arms abroad were accompanied by political 
degradation at home. It must have been felt as a shock 
when a local government, admirably devised to promote 
civic virtues and secure just administration, was found, just 
as soon as Rome got the better of her numerous enemies, 
to be such a convenient protection for misrule. 

As early as the last twenty-five years of the second cen- 
tury before Christ, the machinery of Roman government 
seems to have been recognized as inadequate to perform 
its functions. Constitutional methods and precedents were 
inadequate to solve the agrarian question, nor was there 
in the state, as an organism, sufficient force either to check 
an oligarchy of wealth or to impose restrictions on the 
personal ambitions of successful military leaders such as 
Marius and Sulla. Some of the fundamental principles of 
the Roman republican system were now treated as legal 
fiction. There had been years of civil war, for not only 
had Rome been attacked by groups of Italian towns asso- 
ciated with her for several hundred years, but Roman 
citizens had been divided among themselves in a way that 
would have been unthinkable in the period of the Punic 
wars. 

One would like to know the personal political convictions 
of the opposing leaders, Marius and Sulla. The probability 
is that neither of them looked much farther ahead than 
does a representative of " boss " rule in America, who would 
be very much surprised if asked whether he would like to 
see the principles of the political ring incorporated frankly 
and definitely in the Constitution of the United States. It 
is certain that after the death of Sulla, though personal 
rule had come to an end, there was no effort made to 
prevent its re-emergence. The question was rather — from 
what quarter it would emerge. The common opinion was 
that the popular general, Pompeius, distinguished by his 
victories in the East, would come to take the place left 
vacant by Sulla's death. He had none of the antipathetic 



CiESAR 67 

personal qualities of the late dictator, therefore he was re- 
garded as a man of principle, and acordingly, fitted to sup- 
ply the personal element in Roman administration which 
most people seem to have felt was needed. 

But all these calculations were soon upset. Pompeius, 
rapidly elevated to greatness along a smooth road of easy 
gradients, trusted to his friends in Rome to overcome all 
the political obstacles in his way there. While he was still 
acclaimed the great military champion of the Roman Re- 
public, he soon found himself face to face with a rival — 
a man who set himself forward purposefully to revive 
the popular platform of the Marian party. 

Caius Julius Caesar, born July 12, 100 B.C., had no natural 
affiliations with the popular side of politics represented by 
Marius. So far as descent was concerned, he was an aris- 
tocrat of the aristocrats, belonging to an ancient patrician 
gens which traced back its legendary origin to a divine being 
— the goddess Venus. Of the early years of Caesar only a 
little is known ; and that little is handed down in the form of 
anecdotes the value of which lies in the incidental light they 
throw on his travels in the eastern part of the Roman 
world. It would be more interesting to know something 
of Caesar's education than of his capture by pirates off the 
coast of Asia Minor — an accident used by his ancient biog- 
raphers to prove what everybody knows — that he was a 
brave man even in the most hazardous circumstances. His 
early years could not have been spent carelessly, for he 
acquired a remarkably sound education. His literary tastes 
must have been the result of long discipline. His many- 
sidedness and intellectual facility were fully recognized by 
his contemporaries. Even Cicero, who claimed to have spent 
his youth as a model " grind," tacitly allows that Caesar's 
intellectual equipment was fully the equal of his own. The 
years of study were a necessity as well as a diversion. It 
was not safe even for a brilliant young man, while the 
truculent Sulla was dictator, to show practical interest in 
home politics, especially if his sympathies were with the 
Marian party. 

And Caesar was from the first a partisan of Marius. He 



68 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

was pledged to this political faction by family ties as well 
as by personal conviction. Marius's wife was Caesar's aunt, 
and Csesar himself had made the alliance with the Marians 
closer by taking as his wife the daughter of Cinna, one of 
the most active of Marius's supporters. During the Reign 
of Terror caused by the proscriptions of Sulla, Caesar, be- 
cause of his relations with the democratic party, had with 
difficulty escaped the dictator's vengeance, and while Sulla 
continued to control the Republic Caesar found it prudent 
to withdraw into obscurity, from which he only emerged 
when the revival of the democratic tradition could be safely 
undertaken. Then he took the first opportunity that offered 
itself to make a declaration of loyalty to Marius, the old 
leader of the democracy. It was at the death of his aunt, 
Marius's widow, that he delivered a funeral address in which 
he praised Marius's principles and achievements. (68 B.C.) 
This challenge made to the dominant party by the young 
politician was a bold stroke. His speech was the sensation 
of the hour, and the glowing words which expressed his 
purpose of working for the restoration of the Marian 
democracy won for him the warm approval of the popular 
party. Not long after this Caesar was chosen to his first 
elective office, that of ^dile, in 65 B.C., a somewhat irregu- 
lar proceeding, for he was two years short of the legal 
age. He used his term of service in order to increase 
his favor with the democracy, and he showed a keen 
political scent in discovering ways and means by which 
he could keep himself constantly in the foreground as the 
champion of popular rights, earning a reputation for lavish 
expenditure of money by giving public games, fairs, and 
gladiatorial shows. It was not difficult at this time to win 
the favor of the Roman democracy. Pompeius, who con- 
trolled the army and through his position as commander-in- 
chief exerted a preponderating influence on the government, 
was on the point of completing the destruction of the up- 
start empire of Mithridates and bringing the Asiatic prov- 
inces with firm hand again under the sway of Rome. There 
stood in Caesar's way as a competitor for political honors 
only the second-rate personality of Crassus, the richest 



CiESAR 69 

man in Rome, who, somehow, despite his belief in the 
venality of the populace and his readiness to act upon his 
belief, seemed never to have struck the popular imagina- 
tion powerfully enough to acquire the momentum of the 
genuine demagogue. 

Caesar had great advantages through his family con- 
nections ; his position as the legitimate heir of Marius made 
him already a central figure in the political life of the city, 
and even Crassus found it advisable to work for him and 
with him, by advancing him large sums of money to cover 
the lavish expenditure of the three years' aedileship. Caesar 
was already looking beyond Rome and its purely local 
interests. That he had no confidence in the kind of govern- 
ment under which he served is shown by pretty clear inti- 
mations that he was aware of the existence of a plot, 
intended to reduce the power of the senatorial oligarchy to 
zero. It is certain, too, that Caesar worked hard to secure 
a military command in Egypt, which was not yet a Roman 
province and, therefore, could furnish him an admirable 
vantage ground by its wealth and by its strategical position 
for blocking the plans of Pompeius, who was working 
through control of the senatorial oligarchy for a revival 
in his own hands of personal rule after the Sullan model. 
This design of Caesar was a bold one and conceived with 
a large vision. Its aim was to provide a stronghold for 
the democracy should the central government, as seemed 
likely to happen, be manipulated by an irregular dictator- 
ship. The plan may have been suggested by the career 
of Sertorius in Spain, where this successful opponent of 
the Sullan regime had so long offered a refuge to all those 
who were enemies of the oligarchy that ruled the capital. 
It was characteristic of Caesar's confident temperament that 
he was willing, without previous military training, to under- 
take a hazardous adventure that meant certainly a conflict 
with the seasoned generals of the oligarchy. 

A further indication, if any were needed, of the purpose 
of the new leader of the democratic party to treat Pompeius 
as the danger point on the horizon, was a proposed scheme 
of an agrarian legislation by which a board was to be created 



70 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

with extensive military and judicial power for the purpose 
of seUing all the properties and territories acquired by the 
state since the year 88, along with all of the war booty and 
confiscated revenues now in the hands of Pompeius. To this 
measure was added a clause intended to transform the bill 
into a popular manifesto for the colonization of Italy with 
small landholders, and therefore constructed on the lines of 
those earlier agrarian laws which mark the commencement 
of the struggle of the Roman democracy with the capital- 
istic oligarchy two generations before Cesar's time. This 
agrarian legislation was defeated by Cicero, who in this 
case, as often elsewhere, championed the interests of the 
moneyed classes. He who was now Consul and was posing 
as the Grand Conciliator, praised Pompeius as the strict 
constitutional champion, and characterized Ccesar's agrarian 
legislation as revolutionary. In the face of the Consul's 
opposition Caesar hesitated to press the matter and withdrew 
his bill. (64 B.C.) As this is the first legislative act brought 
forward under Caesar's influence, it is interesting to note that 
his later political methods and policies are anticipated in it. 
His Agrarian Law, when analyzed, contains two elements. 
There is the purely personal feature, more or less cleverly 
concealed in various clauses of the measure so constructed 
as to forward the political interests of its author, and. sec- 
ondly, one can detect in Qesar's plan for agrarian reform 
a keen-sighted appreciation of existing social and economic 
needs. This last showed itself in the provision that the 
surplus population of Rome should be employed as cul- 
tivators of the soil. Cicero's methods of defeating the 
bill by appealing to party prejudice were as essentially 
demagogic as were Caesar's plans for winning popular sup- 
port for his measure. The only difference between them 
was that Cicero was working in the interest of a capitalistic 
oligarchy, while Caesar directly aimed at the establishment 
of personal Rile under the protection of an irresponsible 
commission with unlimited powers. The campaign against 
tlie dominant party was not, however, allowed to drop 
because of tlie withdrawal of the Agrarian Bill. Caesar, 
through one of his lieutenants, brought impeachment pro- 



CiESAR 71 

ceedings against the murderer of a democratic leader who 
had distinguished himself in the last days of Marius. It 
was part of his pin-pricking policy, meant to intimidate 
the senatorial faction, and the aim was clear, for the Senate 
had by a decree relieved the murderer of responsibility years 
before. Nothing came of the impeachment, but it went 
on record as showing Caesar's loyalty to the democracy. 
His next proposal was especially gratifying to the admirers 
of Marius, because it involved the removal from the 
children of the victims of the Sullan proscription the dis- 
qualification by which they were prevented from holding 
public office. 

Soon after this, in the spring of 63, when there was a 
vacancy in the office of Pontifex Maximus, the supreme 
head of the religion of the city of Rome, Caesar became 
a candidate. There were no religious qualifications neces- 
sary; the office had no more relation to personal belief 
than that of a prince bishop of the later history of the 
German States, when territorial princes added the episcopal 
to their other titles. Caesar was one of the most advanced 
free-thinkers in Rome. But he felt no incongruity, and 
apparently no one else did, in his desire to figure as the 
director of the traditional religious usages of the capital. 
The position meant so much to Caesar that, heavily in- 
debted as he was, he refused to withdraw his name, when 
a large sum was offered by an opposing candidate on con- 
dition that he would retire from the contest. The office 
of Pontifex Maximus carried with it a number of powers 
with great political possibilities, because in addition to con- 
trolling the property attached to the college of priests over 
which he presided, the Pontifex had important jurisdiction 
in religious questions, the determination of religious scruples, 
and the charge of the Calendar. All of these matters were 
intimately connected with the Roman legislative procedure 
and also with the judicial system as worked by the Roman 
magistrates. Moreover, it was a life position, and one's 
only surprise is that Caesar's administration of the office 
was not attacked by his enemies. As a matter of fact, 
his career as an official religious leader is marked by 



72 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

beneficent reforms in the Calendar and by a solid contribu- 
tion to the science of chronology. 

There was some difficulty in the election, for it had been 
placed by Sulla in the hands of the members of the college. 
But this measure was repealed, and when the people became 
the electors, Caesar had easily the majority of the votes 
over his two conservative opponents. The year 63 had 
not been, as we have seen, a happy or tranquil one for 
the men in power; there had been a constant series of 
attacks made upon them, and they had been forced to 
stand steadily on the defensive. 

Before the time for the consular elections the extreme 
wing of the popular party appeared to have got out of 
hand. They selected for their candidate Catiline, a leading 
spirit among the criminal and corrupt order of Roman 
society, who had contested the election before and had 
been defeated. Caesar had already energetically supported 
Catiline, but in the latter's second attempt to be elected 
Consul, it seems clear that Caesar's support was at 
best half-hearted. Caesar had come to know the reckless 
nature of Catiline's program, with its appeal for a general 
canceHng of debts and its general attack on all capitalistic 
interests. The scheme, however, did win the approval of 
the discontented classes, and the occasion for carrying it 
through was favorable, because Pompeius, the only man 
with a military force adequate to act forcibly on behalf of 
the senatorial oligarchy, was absent still in the East. It 
was understood that Catiline, if he obtained office, would 
use it to inaugurate a social revolution; if he were de- 
feated, it was planned that violent methods should be used 
to force a change of government on the oligarchy. An 
army was to be collected in Italy, the city was to be set on 
fire, and in the confusion the reins of government would 
be taken by Catiline and his followers. 

The plot was shrewdly defeated by Cicero, who was 
given by the Senate unlimited powers, after a state of 
siege had been proclaimed. Catiline escaped from the city, 
taking refuge with his army, which had been collected 
near Florence; but several of the other conspirators were 



CiESAR 73 

taken prisoners in Rome, and the question of their fate 
was brought up before the Senate. Caesar had by report 
been impHcated in the conspiracy, but Cicero refused to 
follow up these suspicions. Accordingly, in the senatorial 
debate, Caesar appeared rather in the light of a cross bench 
statesman than as a firm supporter of the revolutionary 
leader. 

It must be remembered that the Senate had no right to 
condemn a man to death or to banishment. A general 
in the field could inflict the death sentence without appeal, 
but no magistrate within the precincts of the city could 
do so; there was an appeal from his decision to the people 
legally assembled. Cicero wished to get from the Senate 
an authoritative opinion, as to whether under their previous 
decree of martial law he could exercise in the city the 
summary rights allowed to a general in the field. Caesar 
spoke after the consular members of the Senate, all of whom 
had declared for the administration of the extreme penalty. 
He opposed it in a careful and statesmanlike speech, using 
his opportunity for putting himself on record as the up- 
holder of the democratic view of the constitution. 

As no verbal report of any other of Caesar's speeches 
has come down to us, it is interesting to give an extract 
from Sallust's version, which may be taken as an accurate 
outline, for, owing to Cicero's personal interest in the 
matter, the whole proceedings of the Senate during this 
crucial debate were taken down in shorthand. After 
deprecating the use of rhetoric as likely to prejudice the 
judgment, and remarking that eloquent pictures of the 
horrors of war and rebellion were alien to the matter in 
hand, Caesar's words were : " And indeed, for the crimes 
we have to deal with, no penalty is in itself too cruel ; death 
at least cannot be so, for it puts an end to the misery of 
this life and brings no torment in another. But the penalty 
will be looked on as cruel, simply because it is unconstitu- 
tional. It has been over and over again forbidden by 
express legislation to scourge or kill a citizen without trial. 
You do not propose to scourge these men, presumably be- 
cause the law forbids it. Why, then, do you propose to put 



74 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

them to death? Both penalties are equally illegal. I must 
remind you also of the precedent your action will create. 
Once place such a power as you claim in the hands of a 
government and you cannot put a limit on its use; it may 
be and will be used against good and bad alike, as it was 
by the Thirty at Athens and in our own recollection by 
Sulla. I do not fear this now or with Cicero as Consul; 
but I will not answer for the power of the sword in the 
hands of future Consuls. Let us abide by the law and 
not seek in a panic to overrule it. My advice is, not indeed 
that we let these men go, and thus increase the resources 
of Catiline, but that we commit them for life to close 
custody in the largest Italian towns, securing them by 
holding over each town the heaviest possible penalty in 
case they should escape. And I further propose that we 
pass a decree embodying our opinion that no proposal 
touching them shall be made henceforth either in Senate 
or assembly; and that disregard of the decree shall be 
treated by the Senate as high treason against the state." 

The hint of a reaction was not an oratorical common- 
place ; it was suggested by the recent history of Rome itself, 
and proved most effective, for even Cicero's own brother, 
Quintus, who followed Csesar, expressed his agreement 
with him. Cicero himself, in his reply, took a rather 
wavering position, paying special attention to the practical 
proposals of Caesar, which so many modern historians have 
decided to be weak and specious. But these have forgotten 
that, even if Caesar's plans for keeping the prisoners as 
perpetual ticket-of-leave men in various Italian communi- 
ties offered no effective guarantee that they would not 
escape, there was no especial reason for fearing their pres- 
ence again in Rome after Catiline and his army had been 
destroyed. None of the conspirators was a man of first-rate 
abihty, and besides, the experience of unsuccessful con- 
spiracy has almost as strong an educational effect as im- 
prisonment. Many Paris communards settled down as 
peaceful citizens. 

Cicero made an unfortunate experiment at this juncture. 
The Senate listened readily to the summary appeals for jus- 



CiESAR 75 

tice to traitors made by Cato, but Cicero's execution of the 
Catilinarians was stored up against him in the popular mind, 
and much of the good he might have done in his poHtical 
career was frustrated by his weakness in identifying himself 
with the blind passion of the reactionary party. For the 
moment, however, Cicero carried the people with him ; they 
lost their heads, alarmed by the wild tales of conflagration 
and massacre. Caesar's life was in danger, because he had 
pleaded for a policy of moderation, and it must be allowed 
that the words of his speech did not represent a pose. 
The principles he stood for in 63 he adhered to after the 
civil wars were over, when a word from him might have 
initiated a proscription after the Sullan model. 



II 

ALLIANCE WITH POMPEIUS AND CRASSUS 

The year following the suppression of the Catiline con- 
spiracy was one of uncertainty. Pompeius was returning 
home after his six years' stay in the East. The question 
was whether he would play the role of a new Sulla. It 
seems generally to have been expected that he would. 
There was no army in Italy strong enough to resist his 
will; certainly the force which had overcome Catiline near 
Fiesole was quite unequal to such a work. The question 
was, who were to be his friends and what policy would he 
pursue. One of the general's emissaries appeared in Rome, 
and made it clear that Pompeius could not be used as a 
mere tool of the senatorial party. Cicero made tactless 
overtures to secure his favor, and met with a cold re- 
ception. 

Caesar showed more diplomacy, paying the general the 
compliment of requesting him to finish the Capitoline tem- 
ple, one of the chief shrines of the civic religion of Rome. 
This duty came within Caesar's province as Pontifex Maxi- 
mus, and besides as Praetor for this year he held a position 
which made his influence useful to the returning general. 



76 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

Both the scheme for the restoration of the temple and a 
measure for recalHng Pompeius to the city, which was sup- 
ported by Caesar, were opposed by the Senate, and the dis- 
cussion led to such violence that the Senate suspended 
Caesar from his functions as magistrate, and only restored 
him when he had personally intervened to quiet the pas- 
sions of the mob. 

Though Caesar's year of office was over (6i B.C.), and the 
time had come for him to administer Spain as Propraetor, 
that being the province assigned him, he delayed his de- 
parture. There were many grounds for this course. Pom- 
peius had been keeping his own counsel as to his future 
plans, and required watching. Caesar had difficulties with 
his creditors ; he had long been heavily in debt, and his year 
of office, with its sensational political activities, must have 
severely drained his resources. 

But the chief cause which delayed his journey west was 
the violation, in the House of the Pontifex Maximus, of 
the sacred mysteries of the Bona Dea by a young Quaestor- 
elect, Clodius, who was suspected of being the lover of 
Caesar's wife, Pompeia. A scandal involving the head of 
the state religion was a serious matter, and Caesar lived 
up to the role assigned him by sententiously remarking 
that Caesar's wife ought not even to be suspected and by 
seizing this opportunity of divorcing her. The step satis- 
fied public opinion at the time, but the dignity of the act 
is somewhat lessened in the eyes of later critics from the 
fact that the Pontifex Maximus himself was, even accord- 
ing to the flexible standards of Rome, notorious for his 
moral laxity. 

When Clodius' trial was held, Caesar diplomatically de- 
nied that he had any certain knowledge of the case. Politics 
were so much involved in this trial that proscriptions might 
have been initiated. Clodius was a figure in the popular 
party, and, in the end, by the common method of bribing 
the judges, an acquittal was secured. Pompeius, in the 
midst of this exciting time, had arrived in Rome, thus giving 
Caesar an opportunity of taking the measure of the over- 
praised Eastern conqueror. Before Caesar left for Spain, 



Ci$:SAR 77 

mutual advances had taken place, and he felt sure that 
Pompeius would not ally himself with the senatorial party. 
Caesar also continued to be on good terms with the 
millionaire Crassus, and before leaving Italy he borrowed 
from him eighteen hundred talents to satisfy the demands 
of creditors. 

Of the period of Caesar's rule in Spain little is known; 
but his service there was valuable to him because, while 
contending with the hardy hill tribes, who were constantly 
in arms against the Romans, he received a training in war 
that afterwards stood him in good stead. He showed him- 
self, too, an able and conscientious administrator, regardful 
of the condition of the provincials, who had suffered from 
the loss of property and from heavy taxation during the 
unintermitted war that took place while the government at 
Rome was destroying the home-rule system set up by Ser- 
torius. The beneficent character of Caesar's administration 
showed itself in his friendly relation with the free city of 
Gades, where he was called in to reform the local laws 
and to settle factional disputes. The prosperity of the 
town in after years may reasonably be supposed to have 
dated from this period. Even Cicero speaks in glowing 
language of Caesar's supervision. The generous character 
of his treatment of the town is seen in its admission twelve 
years afterwards to the full Roman franchise. One of 
the most distinguished of the citizens of Gades, Balbus, be- 
came Caesar's confidential agent and secretary, serving in 
this capacity for many years without a break. After his 
master's death, Balbus rose to be Praetor and Consul; he 
was the first enfranchised foreigner who held these highest 
offices in Rome. 

All the afifairs relating to his provincial government were 
set in order in the spring of 59 B.C., when Caesar set out 
for Rome to be there in time for the consular elections, 
which were usually held in summer. He had two objects 
in view : one to secure the dignity of a triumph, the official 
stamp of a successful military commander; the other to 
present himself as a candidate for the consulship. It was 
impossible for him while holding a military command to 



78 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

appear within the walls and formally solicit the votes of 
his fellow-citizens. He therefore asked for permission to 
become a candidate without fulfilling the formal conditions, 
and this request the Senate refused to grant. Caesar solved 
the difficulty by sacrificing the triumph; he resigned his 
command and entered the city as a private individual. 

But now the opposition to him took another form. A 
determined aristocrat, M. Calpurnius Bibulus, who, apart 
from his political tenets, had a long-standing personal grudge 
against Caesar, was put «p by the senatorial party as his 
colleague for the consulship, and was elected by the lavish 
use of money. Caesar's next move in this game of political 
strategy was a master stroke of astuteness; he formed a 
close combination with Pompeius, whom the senatorial party 
had just irritated by vetoing all his pet schemes, among 
them an opportunity of a second consulship and a plan to 
reward his soldiers by a distribution of public lands. As 
a third member of the alliance Crassus was introduced, 
a valuable asset because of the great financial backing he 
could give. He saw a chance for promoting his political 
advancement with two such colleagues to help him. It was 
a frank system of give and take; there were no strong 
personal ties between any of the three members of tKe 
junta, but they had at least a common opponent, the sen- 
atorial party. 

An effort was made, though it was unsuccessful, to 
detach Cicero from his friendly relations with the aris- 
tocratic majority in the Senate; as he declined the invitation, 
the new political machine became a triumvirate, the union 
of three influential persons to overcome opposition and 
to prevent the wheels of public business from being blocked 
by the endless methods of obstruction ever ready to be 
employed in the complicated system of Roman government, 
where the checks were more numerous than the balances. 
It simply meant that these three men, and not the reaction- 
ary senators, should decide on the distribution of provinces, 
on the candidates for offices, and on the command of armies. 
From the record of all three, it was clear that the technique 
of the constitutional system would not be treated with 



CiESAR 79 

great reverence, for all were practical politicians and had 
definite personal ambitions to gratify. 

As Consul, Caesar began his year of magistracy with a 
policy of studied moderation. He tried to get on with 
Bibulus by showing him marked consideration in the way 
of official precedence, and his first reform of senatorial 
practice concerned a subject which might well have been 
taken as a non-controversial matter, the publication of the 
Senate's proceedings. Caesar proposed that a summary of 
each debate should be exposed to view in the Forum. It was 
an intimation to the senators that they must hold themselves 
responsible to public opinion. 

The next proposal was to make some arrangement by 
which the veterans of Pompeius' army should be supplied 
with pubHc lands. These lands had to be acquired by the 
state from private owners, so the proceeds of the extensive 
conquests of Pompeius' conquests in the East were to be 
applied to this purpose. The Senate refused to listen to 
any agrarian measure; the very name frightened them. 
Cato obstructed, trying to talk the scheme out in the Senate. 
Caesar, who had as little respect for parliamentary pro- 
cedure as Cromwell, put a stop to this copious oratory by 
placing the speaker under arrest. He was soon released, 
however, in deference to the pressure of his colleagues. 

In the face of the hopeless opposition of tEe Senate to 
the Consul's legislation, the only course left to pursue was 
for Caesar to present his legislation directly to the popular 
assembly, without the authorization of the Senate. This 
method was extraordinary, but not absolutely illegal, and 
it had been employed by reformers since the time of Tiberius 
GraccHus. There were, of course, grave objections to it, 
for measures could be rushed through without proper dis- 
cussion, and it is well known that hasty legislation is often 
dangerous, even for those who promote it. A specially 
drastic feature of the agrarian bill was the clause which 
compelled senators and all officers, to be elected in future, 
to swear to be faithful to its provisions. 

In this way Caesar hoped to secure his measure from 
being abrogated when the year of his magistracy was over. 



8o THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

This clause was not, however, a new expedient, but it was 
now being used in a new way to prevent the claim that 
prerogatives of the Senate had been violated by passing legis- 
lation without consulting its wishes. Pompeius promised 
to support the bill by arms if violence were resorted to on 
the other side. A Tribune exercised his right to veto on 
the measure, when it was introduced in the popular assem- 
bly, but this old constitutional check was contemptuously 
disregarded. Also, when Bibulus, the conservative colleague 
of Caesar, interfered by formally delaying action in the 
measure, he was forcibly removed from the Forum by some 
of Pompeius' veterans. Bibulus was equally powerless 
when he invoked religious scruples of a technical kind, 
for Caesar was Pontifex Maximus as well as Consul. Bibu- 
lus' interpretations of signs and omens were ruled out as 
irregular. Even when the bill was passed by the people, 
he kept up opposition in the Senate and tried to induce 
the senators to declare the agrarian law null and void. 
They, however, were not prepared to join him in such a 
hazardous undertaking, so in disgust he withdrew for the 
rest of his term into private life. His retirement led the 
people to remark jokingly that the two Consuls for the 
year were Julius and Caesar, not Caesar and Bibulus. 

The passage of the agrarian democratic measure, as it 
stood, was undertaken to fulfil engagements made with 
Pompeius, whose troops were especially concerned in this 
distribution of lands. Equally personal were the measures 
passed by the people to regularize the situation of the terri- 
tories in the East, where Pompeius, after his conquests, 
had acted on his own initiative in making treaties, imposing 
taxation, and settling the terms of local administration. The 
personal relations between the two triumvirs were now 
drawn closer by the marriage of Caesar's daughter Julia to 
Pompeius; she was at this time twenty-two years old, and 
as long as she lived she prevented any open rupture between 
her husband and her father. 

In another legislative enactment Caesar attested his loyal 
interpretation of the triumvirate compact rather than his 
desire to forward the public interests of the state. Crassus 



CiESAR 8 1 

desired that the farmers of the taxes in the province of 
Asia should be reHeved from the contract which they had 
made with the government. It was a shady piece of busi- 
ness; even Cicero, who was not apt to be critical where 
capitalistic interests were involved, called the scheme of 
Crassus shameful. It was defeated in the Senate by the 
determined efforts of Cato. The measure was afterwards 
jammed through the popular assembly in a form which 
relieved the taxgatherers of one-third of their financial 
burden. 

This was really a shrewd move to separate from the 
senatorial party the whole mercantile class, who normally 
acted solidly with them. They now looked upon the tri- 
umvirate combination as favorable to their interests, and so 
deprived the Senate of a solid support at a time when that 
body needed every element of the population in its unequal 
struggle with the triumvirs. 

Much more worthy than this act of special legislation 
was a measure for dealing with extortion on the part of 
provincial administrators. The Roman governors and their 
subordinates treated the provinces as legitimate spoil, by 
which they could balance the large amounts spent at home 
in political corruption. This system offered the most un- 
wholesome example of ring rule. Every man in pubHc life 
had a good chance of ruling a province at some time in 
his career, and there was no inducement to touch a well- 
tried system which had proved profitable to all concerned. 

Caesar's law was a blanket measure, evidently drawn with 
great intelligence and showing the familiarity of an ex- 
provincial official with the concrete needs of the situation. 
It extended the jurisdiction of existing courts for cases 
of provincial extortion, in regard to the definition of the 
crime, the persons liable, and the penalties to be imposed. 
All the methods of extortion were brought within the scope 
of this act. The governor and his official staff were held 
liable, and the punishment, hitherto chiefly imposed by 
damages, was increased to deprivation of the right to be- 
queath property, and in some cases expulsion from the 
Senate and exile were inflicted on offending officials. 



82 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

Good as this legislation was, it contained a political ele- 
ment which prevented it from meeting the whole situation 
of provincial misrule. The triumvirate, we have seen, made 
a distinct bid for the favor of the mercantile classes when 
the previous bill was passed relieving the taxgatherers of 
Asia from the full extent of their contract. This new law 
only concerned the administration of senatorial officials; it 
did not put an end to extortion, nor did it stop the avenues 
of public corruption, because the financiers, the men who 
gathered about the official ruling class, were left to ply their 
nefarious trade unmolested. 

But Caesar's consulship broke the power of the senatorial 
aristocracy, which had been on the decline ever since the 
death of Sulla. By his alliance with Pompeius and Crassus 
a continuity of policy was secured, under which the old 
republican principle that cessation of office meant also ces- 
sation of power came to an end. The main business at the 
close of his year of service as Consul was to arrange that 
the system he had started should continue to work smoothly. 
The two candidates for the consulship were pledged sup- 
porters of the triumvirate. An even more important tool 
was the active and unscrupulous Clodius, who had made 
himself notorious because of the Bona Dea scandal. He was 
made a Tribune, and as such became the local agent in Rome 
of the triumvirs' interests. He signalized his entrance into 
office by abolishing the small payment still exacted on the 
state distribution of grain to the people, and he organized 
the masses into guilds, each under a district leader, so that 
the populace could be controlled and could be worked to- 
gether either as a political machine or as a mob, whether 
to vote or to do deeds of violence according to the password 
of their leader. 

The Senate, in arranging the assignment of provinces in 
B.C. 59, had tried to diminish Caesar's influence by giving 
him for his work as Proconsul the duty of attending to 
the internal condition of Italy. This meant that he would 
have no military force at his command, and that he would 
be expected to devote himself to the supervision of roads 
and public works. The senatorial arrangement for ren- 



CiESAR 83 

dering their chief opponent innocuous was simply an invita- 
tion to him to treat it as non-existing. It was proposed 
to set the Senate's action aside and to give Cisalpine Gaul 
and the adjoining province of Illyria to Caesar for a period 
of five years. 

When the new measure was before the popular assembly, 
the Senate, under pressure from Pompeius, voted that in 
addition to Cisalpine Gaul in the Celtic region on the Italian 
side of the Alps, the Gallic province, with an ample army 
and suitable staff, should be assigned to Caesar. It was 
known that there was restlessness among the Gauls and the 
Germans, who were on the borders of the prosperous Roman 
province in southern Gaul along the lower Rhone. This 
was, of course, an opportunity for real proconsular duty, 
but probably no one who voted for the assignment realized 
the possibilities of the command which now fell into Caesar's 
hand. 

But before setting out for his province (58 B.C.), Caesar 
remained near at hand to supervise Clodius' arrangements 
for muzzling the Senate ; it was not safe for the new Procon- 
sul to absent himself from Rome until affairs there had been 
brought so under control that there would be no chance 
of a senatorial reactionary movement. Clodius first abol- 
ished the use of indefinitely prolonged obstruction, a practice 
involved in the religious privilege of " watching the heav- 
ens " for evil omens, and a method of delay normally used 
to prevent the assemblies of the people from being held. 
The next step was to hinder the Censors from making a 
combination to remove from the Senate partisans of Caesan 
This purpose was secured by another law of Clodius that 
made it impossible for the Censor to strike from the roll 
of the Senate anyone, except on a formal accusation, and 
no member could be removed even then unless both Censors 
acted together. 

Caesar attempted also to conciliate Cicero by offering him 
a staff appointment ; on this being refused, as it was desira- 
ble to deprive the senatorial party of the oratorical talents 
which gave Cicero a hold on the people, Clodius was al- 
lowed to bring charges against him in connection with the 



84 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

execution of the Catilinarian conspirators. The terms of 
the new law were perfectly general ; it simply outlawed any 
person who had or should hereafter put to death a Roman 
citizen uncondemned, that is, without due trial and sentence. 
Cicero took the hint and fled from Rome. At the same 
time the uncompromising senatorial obstructionist Cato was 
" kicked upstairs " by being given an appointment as com- 
missioner to supervise the annexation of the island of Cy- 
prus. Ample time was allowed him, and it was arranged 
that when he had finished with Cyprus, he should go to 
Byzantium and settle some unimportant disputes in that 
free city. With Cato kept busy at a long distance from 
Rome, and with Cicero out of the way, there was little to 
fear with Clodius acting in the role of " boss " of Rome. 



Ill 

THE CONQUEST OF GAUL 

Very soon after the flight of the great orator, Caesar, who 
had been watching with his army the proceedings within 
the city, started for his province of Gaul. The country 
which was to be the scene of his labors as governor, and in 
which through successive campaigns his reputation in gen- 
eralship was to be made, was larger than modern France, 
for it extended to the Rhine, the Alps, and the Pyrenees. 
Only a part of it was familiar to the Romans, and for this 
reason one of the most striking proofs of Caesar's skill as 
a commander is the ability and certainty with which he 
penetrated into regions unvisited before and therefore un- 
familiar to him except by the hearsay stories of the casual 
traveler. The province had originally been occupied by the 
Romans in the struggle with Hannibal, because it secured 
their land communication with Spain. In its southern part 
it was well developed and civilized, but the limit of Roman 
rule northward was marked by the valley of the Rhone, and 
the famous city of Lyons had not yet been founded, which 
was later on the headquarters of Roman power in Gaul. 



CiESAR 85 

Much trouble was being experienced from Germanic in- 
vaders farther north, who were crossing the Rhine and 
were in great numbers occupying the fertile lands to the 
east of them. The Gauls themselves had no cohesive power 
of resistance ; they were constantly quarreling among them- 
selves, and it seemed only a question of time when the 
Germans, uniting with the Gauls, who were certain to be- 
come subject to their rule, would overwhelm the, peaceful 
and civilized inhabitants of the Roman province. The sit- 
uation required immediate attention, for the ^dui who 
lived between the Loire and the Saone were calling on the 
Romans as allies for help and protection against their neigh- 
bors, other Gaulish tribes, who with the aid of the German 
king, Ariovistus, were threatening to take their land. Be- 
sides, it was reported that the Helvetic and the German 
peoples were contemplating a migration on a large scale, 
induced to leave south Germany by the prospect of finding 
better lands farther west. 

The country as a whole was in a state of unrest; the 
unconquered mass of the free tribes, extending from the 
fringe of Roman occupation in the south to the North Sea, 
might easily become dangerous to the countries under Ro- 
man occupation on the other side of the Pyrenees and the 
Alps. Up to the time of Caesar's advent, the government at 
Rome had shown singular apathy; a few resolutions had 
been passed, directing that the allied tribes should be aided, 
but no additions were made to the army in the province. 
The emotional temperament of the Gauls made them sub- 
ject to quick changes in their point of view.; unless some- 
thing were done quickly, even the allies of Rome would 
have to be counted on the other side. It was easy for them 
to drop their present allegiance, for they were as a mass 
a servile population, guided by an aristocracy of nobles or 
knights, and by a widely extended and mysterious guild, the 
Druids, who each year held a solemn assembly in a sacred 
place in the center of the land. 

The general difficulties of coping with the situation were 
great when Caesar took command, but the special details of 
the position as it confronted him increased the obstacles 



86 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

in the way of prompt action. There was but one legion 
beyond the Alps ; the other three were far away in Aquileia 
at the top of the Adriatic. It was fortunate for him that 
he could draw on the reserves of Cisalpine Gaul, the richest 
part of Italy, the province which extended over the plains 
of Lombardy to Tuscany. This province was filled with 
a hardy race of yeomen cultivators, a mixed population, 
having its origin in the conquered Celtic tribes and in 
genuine Roman colonists. 

Nowhere else could there be found a better recruiting 
ground for the legions, and nowhere also, on account of 
the general intelligence of the inhabitants, would the per- 
sonal qualities of a general find a more immediate response. 
The tactfulness of Caesar had already been put to the test 
in the arena of political life; he had learned how to make 
friends and to hold them. Apart from the technical gifts 
of military art, the personal charm of Caesar's character 
was a great factor in securing for him an army made up 
of devoted troops and officers. They trusted him, and 
they were held to him as a leader, because he seems from 
the first to have been able to establish close relations of a 
spontaneous and genuine type with those who were under 
him. His army was not a mere fighting machine, but an 
organism reflecting the individual driving power and cool- 
ness of the man who led it. 

The series of campaigns in Gaul begins with Caesar's suc- 
cessful blocking of the migration of the Helvetii. All that 
is known of the details of the strategy employed by the 
Romans is derived from Caesar's own report, which has 
been frequently criticised as intentionally obscure and mis- 
leading. It must be remembered that the famous com- 
mentaries on the Gallic wars were hurriedly dictated, and 
were meant to tell the public what the commander-in-chief 
wished them to know and nothing more. For example, 
many modern authorities are agreed that the numbers of the 
migrating Helvetii are very much overestimated by Caesar 
and that the real purpose of their migration was art- 
fully concealed. Napoleon, who was a past master in 
falsifying military records, declared that the campaign 



C^SAR 87 

against the Helvetii as narrated by Caesar was incom- 
prehensible. 

The real situation in Gaul prior to the migration seems 
to have been as follows. As we have said, Ariovistus, the 
German king, was in control of the central part of the 
country. This overlordship was burdensome to the Gauls, 
who paid him a yearly tribute. A prince of the ^dui, 
Divitiacus, had turned to the Romans for help, but his 
request was rejected, for Ariovistus, during Caesar's own 
consulship, had been acknowledged as king and formally 
declared an ally and friend of the Roman people. There 
was another party ^mong the ^dui, led by Dumnorix, the 
brother of Divitiacus, who favored throwing off the German 
yoke, and urged a general uprising of the Gauls, unassisted 
by the Romans. 

Not far away from ^duan territory were the Helvetii, 
who were independent of the rule of Ariovistus, and with 
them the autonomous party among the ^dui entered into 
friendly relations in order to secure them as allies against 
the Germans. The Helvetii were to be persuaded by their 
leaders to migrate to western Gaul, and it was arranged 
that, when the whole tribe was slowly passing through 
the land of the ^dui, there should be a rising against 
Ariovistus. The ^dui could count on the assistance of the 
Helvetii, because as future occupants of Gallic territory 
the immigrants would have no desire to be dependents of 
the German king. 

This situation and this program were known to Caesar 
before he left Rome, for he was in communication with the 
pro-Roman party among the ^dui. It was of course his 
object to frustrate this plan of driving out the Germans 
without the help of Rome, because it was to his interest 
that Roman overlordship should take the place of German 
control. The request of the Helvetii to be allowed to pass 
peacefully through Roman territory came just in time. It 
gave Caesar the opportunity of defending the frontier and 
strengthening his army. 

As soon as the Helvetii were refused a passage through 
the Roman province, they started directly for the land of 



88 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

the ^dui, crossing over the Roman territory, and so they 
abandoned the fiction of a migration to the west. In the 
meantime, by the hberal use of money, the pro-Roman 
party among the ^dui had got the upper hand. Accordingly 
when the Helvetii, whose rear division had been attacked 
by Caesar as they were crossing the Saone, reached the 
land of their would-be allies, they were treated as enemies 
by the yEdui, who were now calling on Caesar for help 
to resist the invaders. The Helvetii, willing to return, de- 
sired to come to terms with the Roman general, but they 
refused to accept the Roman conditions as to hostages. 
They started to retrace their steps by following a more 
northerly course on their return in order to take advantage 
of the mountainous country, as a protection against an 
attack on the part of the Romans. 

Csesar followed warily; his own troops were indeed 
strengthened by ^duan cavalry, but these, on the first 
engagement, had fled before the enemy. It was obvious 
their loyalty could not be depended upon, and significant, 
too, that Dumnorix was in command. When an attempt to 
surround the Helvetii with two Roman legions failed, Caesar 
withdrew to Bibracte, the ^duan capital, to replenish his 
army and probably to prevent the defection of his allies. 
The Helvetii might now have returned to their old home 
unmolested, but they were embittered against the Romans, 
who had shown constant hostility to their movements, 
whether they advanced or retreated, and they were quite 
willing to treat with the patriotic party among the JEdui, 
who asked them now for help against the Romans. They 
turned back therefore, with the purpose of attacking the 
Romans as they were marching towards Bibracte. 

The actual number of the Helvetii engaged in this opera- 
tion cannot have been very great, for their wagon train 
was in a very short time collected, formed, and turned 
into an improvised citadel. Their movements before, dur- 
ing, and after battle show that the number 368,000 given 
by Caesar is enormously exaggerated. Altogether, includ- 
ing allied forces, Caesar's army may be reckoned at 40,000 



Ci5:SAR 89 

men. THere were six legions (36,000 men) and allied 
cavalry to the number of 4000. 

When the Helvetii approached, the brunt of the fighting 
was assigned to four legions of veterans; the rest, the 
fresh recruits and the allies, were placed behind the line 
of battle and directed to protect the camp. As the Hel- 
vetii attacked the four legions, who were advantageously- 
stationed on the slope of a hill, they were thrown back; 
but, as the legions advanced, these in turn were vigorously 
attacked on their flanks. The battle was hotly contested, 
the Romans taking the offensive both in the front and on 
the sides. Slowly the enemy withdrew, and it was dark 
before the Roman army took the massed wagons by as- 
sault. After the victory, Caesar remained on the field of 
battle for three days. The Helvetii fled towards the east 
and a few days later surrendered, most of them being sent 
back to their old homes. The Helvetian overthrow was a 
useful stroke; it made a decided impression on the Gauls, 
who were now able to take the measure of the new com- 
mander of the Romans. 

The next move was to break the power of Ariovistus. 
Caesar represents the suggestion as coming from various 
Gallic deputations, who besought him to help them cast off 
the German yoke. But it is obvious that the presence of 
Ariovistus in Gaul was incompatible with the purpose of 
Caesar to subjugate the entire country. All negotiations 
with the German chieftain proved futile; he insisted on 
keeping the Gallic tribes as his tributaries, and simply asked 
to be let alone. 

Caesar took his army to the east and came into contact 
with the Germans in the neighborhood of Belfort or in 
southern Alsace; it is impossible to determine the locality 
with precision. Ariovistus collected his wagons into a forti- 
fied camp on an elevation a short distance from the position 
of the Romans, using his advantage to break up by cavalry 
sorties the Roman line of communication. His plan ap- 
pears to have been to force the Romans to withdraw and 
to attack them on their march. The German leader took 
full advantage of the mobility of his troops, and his cavalry 



90 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

proved too strong for the Gallic horse on the side of the 
Romans. All attempts to draw Ariovistus from his camp 
failed, until Caesar divided his army, placing two legions 
in a fortified position, where they could more efficiently 
protect the line of communications. This smaller camp 
Ariovistus tried to take by storm, and failed. 

When the main Roman army advanced, and began to 
threaten the wagon citadel of the Germans, Ariovistus de- 
termined to give battle. The battle itself was won through 
the superior discipline of the Romans ; once during its prog- 
ress the left wing was in danger, but it was saved by the 
prompt action of the younger Crassus, who was in command 
of the cavalry. Caesar with the right wing carried all before 
him. As to the numbers engaged, it was Napoleon's opinion 
that the Germans were not stronger than Caesar ; the proba- 
biHty is that they were weaker. Ariovistus' whole army, 
though with it he controlled a large part of Gaul, need not 
have been more than 20,000 men. They were, of course, 
a better trained fighting force than anything the Gallic 
tribes could create, and it was not difficult, using the di- 
visions among the Gauls, to establish an effective overlord- 
ship with a small, well-disciplined army. 

Apparently the bulk of the German army was destroyed ; 
Ariovistus, however, succeeded in making his escape beyond 
the Rhine. The defeat of the Germans had important con- 
sequences ; before the opening of the campaign against Ario- 
vistus, news had come from the north that the Suevi, an 
important German tribe, were about to move across the 
Rhine. The knowledge of the fate of Ariovistus forced 
them back again into the depths of Germany. 

During the winter Caesar crossed the Alps to attend to 
the administration of the Cisalpine province, leaving his 
troops quartered in Gaul under the command of his trusted 
lieutenant, Labienus. He raised two new legions, and when 
he returned northward it was already plain that the pacifica- 
tion of the country was far from complete. The Gauls 
feared the expansion of Roman power, and there were 
rumors of an uprising to be led by the tribes of the Belgae. 
Caesar marched directly to the danger spot, and taking 



Ci$:SAR 91 

advantage of tribal jealousies, induced the Remi, whose 
territory lay between the Maas, the Oise, and the Maine, 
to accept the alliance and protectorate of Rome. (57 B.C.) 

This was a wise move, for it was clear from reports on 
the spot that the whole Belgic confederacy, representing the 
most warlike of the Gallic tribes, were up in arms. The 
fate of Ariovistus, the year before, had shown that the 
only way to resist the extension of Roman rule in Gaul 
was by tribal combination. The Belgse thoroughly realized 
their danger, and when Caesar passed their frontiers, they 
opposed him with a large allied army composed of con- 
tingents of all the neighboring peoples. 

The great difficulty was to keep such large masses of 
men together and to provide them with food. In the time 
of Marius, the Germanic invaders, the Cimbri and the 
Teutones, in order to secure provisions as they went, had 
divided into several smaller groups, each one of which was 
beaten in detail by the Roman general. Caesar's strategy 
was to be governed by the same principles; he meant to 
wear the Belgse out and to refuse to give battle until they 
had lost their unity, until each dissevered fraction might 
be drawn into action without support from the rest. Caesar 
having recruited two new legions, in all there were eight. 
Besides, there served under him a variegated band of allies, 
Numidians, Cretans, men of the Balearic Islands, and Gallic 
cavalry. 

Altogether the Roman fighting host may be reckoned at 
fifty to sixty thousand men, with camp followers, perhaps 
nearly one hundred thousand in all. To keep such a body 
in the field for a considerable time meant a carefully organ- 
ized system of transportation and economic equipment. A 
strongly fortified camp was constructed on the north bank 
of the River Aisne, where the soldiers were kept in good 
discipline. The remains of extensive fortifications, in the 
form of ditches eighteen feet wide and nine or ten feet deep, 
and a wall with palisades twelve feet high, were found on 
the site of Caesar's camp by the archaeologists who worked 
under the direction of Napoleon III. 

The camp was in the country of the Remi, who had, 



92 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

as we have mentioned, become allies of the Romans ; it was 
their town Bibrax which the Belgae first attacked, hoping 
to induce Caesar to leave his fortified position to repel them. 
He remained, however, where he was, sending sufficient 
help in the way of defensive artillery to enable the towns- 
men to defend themselves and to force the Belgae to give 
up the siege. They then turned to attack the Roman camp. 
Caesar drew up his army, but neither side had any desire 
to come to close quarters, as in front of the camp there 
was a considerable stretch of swampy ground. The Belgae 
then tried to cut off the Roman line of communications, 
but this involved crossing the Aisne, and its banks were 
closely watched by Caesar's men. A few horsemen and 
war engines were sufficient to deter them from making the 
attempt. 

If the Belgae had crossed with their whole army, they 
could have carried out their purpose; the Roman com- 
munications would have been broken, but the Romans could 
have gone ahead, and the Belgae, outside of their own land, 
had no way of maintaining their supplies. The only thing 
to do was to surround the Roman camp from all sides and 
starve it out. Even with their superior numbers, which 
Caesar gives as 306,000, this was a difficult operation, for 
the enveloping lines, owing to the country being traversed 
by two rivers, would have been large. In any case the Belgae 
recognized that they could not keep the field long, and 
when they heard that Caesar's allies, the ^dui, were in- 
vading their country, they decided to withdraw, the con- 
federated tribes engaging to help one another if Caesar's 
army invaded their territory. The retreat of the Belgae 
was so unexpected that at first the Romans took it for a 
feint meant to provoke them to leave their camp. 

As soon as the news was well authenticated, the cavalry 
pursued the retreating barbarians, keeping up a series of 
irritating attacks. The Belgic strongholds surrendered soon 
after ; only three tribes, the Nervii, the Viromandui, and the 
Atrebates, tried to strike a blow for Gallic freedom. They 
fell upon the Romans, while they were arranging to en- 
camp in a woody country on the Sambre, and caused al- 



CiESAR 93 

most a panic. The allied troops fled in confusion, but the 
legionaries held their ground, getting themselves in line, 
and as they were far superior in numbers to the Nervii, they 
soon got the upper hand of them, although there was some 
sharp fighting and for a time two of the legions were hard 
pressed. It was part of the Roman general's strategy not 
to face a superior force. This point is apparent in the 
previous campaigns, but, as a military writer, Caesar had 
no scruples in manipulating his figures for popular con- 
sumption. When the Nervii made peace unconditionally, 
they represented themselves, according to Caesar, as having 
only 5CX) men left out of an original 60,000 capable of 
bearing arms; a few years later they appear again in the 
Commentaries as having a considerable army. They also 
sent a contingent of 5000 to Alesia at the close of the Gallic 
war. Probably a just estimate of the fighting force of the 
Nervii would give them 30,000 men^ because the whole popu- 
lation of the district could hardly have been more than 
150,000 souls. They occupied a territory of four hundred 
square kilometers, and with the slight density of population 
in Gaul, they could not have numbered more than the figures 
given above. Even in the Italian peninsula, which was more 
thickly settled, there was altogether a population of not 
more than three and a half millions and a density of only 
twenty-five per square kilometer. The Roman legions who 
opposed the Nervii in this last fight numbered at least 
40,000 men. 

Dwelling east of the Nervii were the Aduatuci, said to 
be descendants of the survivors of the former Cimbri and 
Teutones, whom Marius had destroyed. They had prom- 
ised to help the Nervii, but had come too late for the 
battle. Now they withdrew to their chief fortress, but 
when they saw themselves being enveloped in the com- 
plicated and scientific siege works of the Romans, their 
hearts failed and they surrendered before the final assault 
was made. What they had not been able to do openly 
they hoped to accomplish by treachery, for they reserved 
a part of their arms, at the time they made their submis- 
sion, and when the Romans were off their guard at night, 



94 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

made a sudden attack upon them. They were defeated 
with heavy loss, and the next day, in order to make an 
example of them, Caesar sold the whole tribe, men, women, 
and children, into slavery, 53,000 souls in all. 

After the Belgic campaign was over, Caesar laid- plans 
for the further expansion of Roman control in Gaul by 
sending one of his lieutenants to Armorica, modern Nor- 
mandy and Brittany, to secure the submission of the inhab- 
itants. Moreover, seven legions were placed in winter quar- 
ters along the Loire, ready to use the stream to transport 
themselves to the territory of the Veneti, the chief tribe in 
the west of Gaul. (56 b.c.) 

The announcement of Caesar's great success made a pro- 
found impression in Rome; new and unknown domains 
were being annexed, and the people were granted an un- 
precedented space of fifteen days for a public thanksgiving. 
During the winter the general himself took up the detailed 
work of governor of the Cisalpine province, and also made 
a tour of Illyria, which had been previously unvisited by 
him. It was filled with a hardy and brave population and 
might well be used for drawing auxiliary troops for his 
army. 

In Gaul the situation of affairs showed that the people of 
Armorica could not be depended upon, though they pro- 
fessed loyalty to the Romans. Young Crassus, who com- 
manded a garrison encamped at the mouth of the Loire, 
when he found his soldiers suffering from lack of supplies, 
sent some of his officers to collect provisions from the 
neighboring districts supposedly friendly. The Veneti seized 
these men, and refused to give them up except in exchange 
for their own hostages in the hands of the Romans, and 
they proceeded to bind themselves together for common 
action, showing their desire to repudiate the sovereignty of 
Rome. Caesar's reply to the challenge was to order the 
preparation of a fleet of ships to be put into service the 
following summer against the Veneti, whose chief seats were 
along the sea coast. 

It was not possible for Caesar to direct these operations in 
person, for affairs in Rome demanded his presence on the 



CiESAR 95 

southern side of the Alps. Clodius had mismanagea the 
affairs of the democratic party in Rome, had proved head- 
strong, had ahenated Pompeius, and had been unable to pre- 
vent the return of Cicero from exile. The cause of the 
senatorial oligarchy was progressing, and a danger point was 
reached when Crassus drew away from Pompeius, of whose 
popularity he was jealous, and when Pompeius himself felt 
that his talents and his position as conqueror of the East 
were not being sufficiently recognized. Cato, too, was 
returning from Cyprus, and could be rehed upon to give 
the triumvirs trouble in his role of professional obstruc- 
tionist. 

As there was talk already in Rome of the recalhng of 
Caesar, a consultation between the triumvirs was impera- 
tively needed. Lucca in Tuscany was selected for the place 
of meeting, which took place in April, 56. A great crowd 
of officials, magistrates, and senators were present to receive 
orders from the triumvirs or to hear particulars of the 
conference. Caesar by his diplomacy managed to remove 
the causes of estrangement between Crassus and Pompeius, 
and the details of a common policy were arranged. By 
the conference at Lucca, through the adroit manipulation of 
Csesar, the old combination that had begun to work halt- 
ingly, owing to the estrangement between Crassus and Pom- 
peius, and also to their common lack of political acumen, 
was re-established and its details settled. 

The main thing was to muzzle the Senate ; with this done, 
it would be safe for Pompeius and Crassus to carry out 
their plans for securing an important province each, together 
with a military command for a long term of years. The 
arrangement was that the other two triumvirs (Caesar of 
course returning to finish the subjugation of Gaul) should 
be Consuls in 55 ; and after their year of magistracy was 
finished, Pompeius was to have the two provinces in Spain, 
and Crassus was to go to the East, where there would 
be a chance of achieving military distinction in a war with 
the Parthians. In the local affairs of Rome care was taken 
that Clodius should be kept from continuing his line of 
irresponsible action, and Cicero was drawn into the sphere 



96 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

of Caesar's influence by his brother being given a subordi- 
nate miUtary command in Gaul. 

Caesar, when the conference was over, soon returned to 
the front, to deal with the Veneti in such an effective way 
that by their example the Gallic tribes might be taught the 
risks of braving the power of Rome. Divisions of the army 
were sent to various points of Gaul, where it seemed likely 
there might be sympathetic uprisings of the populations in 
favor of the national movement, led by the tribes about the 
Loire. The Veneti had against them Caesar himself, and 
the problem of their subjugation offered some novel diffi- 
culties. Their fortified places were usually on headlands; 
sometimes inaccessible from the mainland except by ship. 
The country was cut up by many estuaries, and the Veneti, 
who were practised sailors, showed great mobility in their 
movements. They withdrew from one post to another, 
easily cutting themselves off from attack as the Romans, 
who were not familiar with the country, advanced to meet 
them with the hope of forcing a decisive engagement. 
Their power could be destroyed only in a naval battle, and 
it required both patience and ingenuity on Caesar's part 
before his men could be trained to meet the enemy in 
their own waters, or even before a fleet could be built 
suitable to overcome the special difficulties of navigation on 
the shores of the Bay of Biscay, so unlike the conditions 
in the Mediterranean. The fleet of the Veneti was finally 
destroyed ; their ships were rendered helpless when the men 
on the Roman fleet cut their rigging with long poles having 
at the end sharp hooked knives, and boarding parties dis- 
posed of the warriors on the decks. Many of the brave 
tribe were put to death when they submitted, and the rest 
were sold as slaves. 

In the meantime the operations of the subordinate com- 
manders had been successful, and conspicuous results had 
been reached in Aquitaine, where the younger Crassus had 
brought all the tribes to accept Roman sovereignty. Indeed 
the only failure to be registered this year was Caesar's own 
expedition in the far northern part of Gaul between the 
Somme and the Rhine, the dwelling place of the Morini and 



CiESAR 97 

the Menapii. These tribes took refuge in their forests and 
could not be dislodged, and even some incidental defeats 
failed to break their obstinacy. 

The new year, as it opened, with news of a German in- 
vasion on a large scale, brought fresh anxieties to the com- 
mander. It was told him that warlike tribes living in and 
about the Thuringian forest were on the move towards the 
west, and that others had even crossed the Rhine, dispersing 
the Gallic tribes in their progress. In Gaul there was a 
disposition in some quarters to welcome them as deliverers ; 
already some of the Gallic tribes were in communication 
with them on a friendly basis. (55 b.c.) 

Caesar marched to meet the Germans, and in a conference 
with their leaders told them they must leave Gallic terri- 
tory, at the same time offering to make an arrangement by 
which they could receive land on the right bank of the 
Rhine. They seemed disposed to accept these terms, but 
soon hostilities were precipitated because, while the terms 
were being discussed, the Germans attacked some of the 
Gallic cavalry attached to Caesar's army. The Romans 
moved suddenly, and according to Caesar's own account, 
butchered in cold blood men, women, and children to the 
number of 430,000, a hearsay number of course, but there 
is no reason for doubting that there was a massacre. No 
Roman was killed and few were wounded. Even in Rome, 
notoriously insensible to deeds of blood, this wholesale 
butchery caused disgust. Cato proposed that Caesar should 
be given up to the barbarians as an act of justice. But 
the Senate contented itself with decreeing honors for the 
victory, although it was proposed, but not carried, that the 
operations in Gaul should be investigated by a commission. 

To finish up the moral effect made on the Germans by 
the massacre of their kinsmen, Csesar built a trestle across 
the Rhine, transported his army into German territory, 
and for a short time his soldiers were employed in laying 
waste the country contiguous to the river. He had no 
intention of penetrating to the interior of the country, and 
soon returned to Gaul, after destroying the bridge he had 
built. 



98 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

This year's campaign had been marked by daring adven- 
tures; it was to have a spectacular close in the expedition 
to Britain, an island known in a general way to traders 
from Gaul, but never yet visited by a Roman official or 
by a Roman army. Caesar affected to believe that resist- 
ance to Roman rule in Gaul was being supported from 
Britain. In any case a protectorate of the island seemed 
to offer great material advantages, for exaggerated reports 
were in circulation as to its wealth and fertility. The ex- 
pedition was only a partial success. A few tribes made 
their submission, but the troops had to be hastily withdrawn, 
because Caesar desired to be back on the mainland before 
the equinoctials set in, as the fleet had already severely 
suffered in a storm. 

In the winter preparations were made on a large scale 
for a second crossing, a large body of transports being 
prepared and collected at Portus Itius (perhaps Wissant, 
near Cape Grinez). The troops in the meantime were 
carefully trained in handling newly constructed vessels spe- 
cially planned for the waters of the narrow seas. During 
the winter the periodic signs of disaffection among the 
Gauls were again plainly visible, this time the Treviri were 
intriguing with the Germans. An advance in force from 
Caesar was needed to put a check to the rising hopes of the 
anti-Roman party, whose chief, Indutiomar, was forced to 
give hostages for his good behavior. Much discontent was 
caused by the necessity of sending contingents to the army; 
besides, the legions were a burden on the food supplies 
of the land. The feeling against foreign control grew 
so strong that Caesar determined to take some of the Gallic 
chiefs with him to Britain, to keep them under personal 
observation. Dumnorix, the ^duan, tried to secure com- 
mon action among all and to induce the other chiefs not 
to embark. Only Dumnorix, however, withdrew when the 
fleet was about to sail. A party was sent back to pursue 
him. When he resisted, he was slain. 

The second expedition to Britain was on an unprece- 
dented scale. There were five legions, two cavalry troops, 
and an armada of 800 vessels to carry them. The British 



C^SAR 99 

tribes withdrew from the coast, and there was some fighting, 
as the Romans made their way inland to attack various 
British strongholds. Some of the tribes submitted, but the 
Roman victories were more apparent than real; the camp 
around the fleet was attacked, and as the army returned, it 
was continually harassed by an active enemy, who dogged 
each stage of the march, but refused to come out and fight 
in the open. The chief result of the invasion was the collec- 
tion of reliable information about the people and their 
customs. The island was not occupied or formally con- 
quered for nearly a century. The captives that were taken 
were brought over to the continent and sold as slaves. 
(54 B.C.) 

When the expedition returned, the troops were distributed 
through Gaul in winter quarters as camps of observation, 
not more than a hundred miles from one another; Caesar's 
own headquarters being at Amiens. The scene of the 
first disturbance was in the northeast; a Roman garrison 
on the march from one camp) to another was cut off, and 
only a few stragglers were left to tell the tale. Cicero's 
brother Quintus, the commander of another garrison, was 
attacked, and no message could be got through the hostile 
tribes of the Nervii to tell Caesar of his desperate straits. 
Finally news was carried by means of a Gallic slave whose 
master, a Nervian refugee, promised him his liberty if he 
were successful. 

Caesar, with one legion and with a division of horsemen, 
arrived just in time to save the beleaguered garrison. The 
Gauls were severely handled when the Romans pushed 
through their lines to reach Cicero's camp. The news of 
the relief caused dejection among the other Gallic tribes, 
who were about to attack _ isolated Roman garrisons. La- 
bienus alone had trouble with the Treviri, but managed to 
ward off the blow, inflicting upon them in turn a crushing 
defeat, and slaying their leader, Indutiomar. The rest of 
the winter and summer campaign was spent in various 
expeditions directed against the Gallic tribes whose loyalty 
was suspected. It was designed to make a special example 
of the Eburones, who had cut off the Roman legion the 



loo THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

preceding year. They were doomed to destruction, and the 
neighboring tribes were invited to come and enjoy the 
plunder. Some of those who came preferred to attack the 
Romans first, and Cicero's camp again fared badly by a 
sudden raid, made by the Sigambri, a German tribe, who 
had crossed the Rhine, invited by the prospect of plundering 
the Gauls. This mistake confused the whole original 
scheme, and it resulted in the escape of the leader of the 
Eburones, Ambiorix, an implacable foe of Rome. 

When the winter of 53-52 came on, Caesar's sojourn in 
the Cisalpine province was passed during a season of much 
anxiety. Rome had been disturbed by factional fights be- 
tween Clodius and his opponent, Milo, in which the popular 
demagogue met his death. There had been a drawing to- 
gether of the senatorial party, and Pompeius, who was now 
looked upon as the chief bulwark against anarchy, had been 
intrusted by the Senate with extraordinary powers, enabling 
him to call for a general levy of men of military age 
throughout Italy. Julia, the wife of Pompeius, was dead, 
and with her vanished the one strong personal link between 
the two triumvirs, for Crassus had perished in the East 
fighting against the Parthians. The news of the troubles 
in Italy spread rapidly in Gaul, causing the restless tribes 
there to believe that Caesar would be kept on the southern 
side of the Alps, and that, with the commander-in-chief 
away, there would be no trouble in bringing about a suc- 
cessful revolt, provided there were common action through- 
out the whole country. The essential condition was tO 
unite all the Gauls against Roman control, and this had 
already in a large measure been accomplished by the king of 
the great tribe of the Arverni, Vercingetorix, now at the 
head of a confederation extending over the whole of the 
central part of the country. It was difficult to overcome the 
particularistic tendencies of the Gauls, but this new chief- 
tain at least understood the difficulties and made a brave 
effort to counteract them. He showed also a sense of the 
strategical needs of the situation by advising the Gauls to 
make use of their superiority in cavalry and to cut off the 
Roman communications ; another feature of his scheme was 



CiESAR loi 

to lay waste the country and force the Roman garrisons 
to withdraw as they were gradually starved out. 

A necessary part of the program was the fighting of a 
decisive battle on a large scale. Vercingetorix had the men 
at his command, for he had won over the vEdui, who from 
the first had aided the Romans in their conquests. Caesar's 
plan was to take the various tribal strongholds one by one; 
he succeeded in the case of Avaricum, the capital of the 
Bituriges. He then sent Labienus against Lutetia with four 
legions, while he advanced with six to lay siege to the 
chief city of the Arverni, Gergovia. Caesar's army was 
not strong enough for the task; the plan of attack failed, 
and the Roman legions were saved only by a quick junction 
with Labienus. 

The whole army was soon withdrawn from central Gaul 
in order to protect the Roman province from attack and 
also to secure for Caesar a position where he could establish 
a fortified camp, from which it would be difficult to be 
dislodged, and where he could depend upon a regular source 
of supplies. He selected a place on the Saone, where he 
could threaten the ^duan territory and be so protected 
that it would be dangerous for Vercingetorix to follow him. 
On the march the Romans were vigorously attacked 
by the Gallic cavalry, but, as they had with them a detach- 
ment of German horse, they were beaten off, and the Ro- 
mans quickly turned the tables, pursuing the Gallic army 
and finally enclosing it in a hill town, Alesia (AHse Ste. 
Reine). 

Preparations were now made for a long siege. It was 
a complicated affair, because Caesar had to provide against 
attacks both from the beleaguered army and from the 
Gauls, who were hastening to aid their natural champion. 
The lines of contravallation were sixteen kilometers long, 
those of circumvallation twenty; the space between the 
Roman army and the town was filled with artificial ob- 
stacles, meant to prevent the successful use of infantry. 
The force under Caesar numbered about 70,000 men and 
included eleven legions. Caesar reports that there were 
80,000 men imprisoned in Alesia, while to the Gallic relief 



102 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

army is assigned 250,000 infantry and 8000 cavalry. Prob- 
ably there were not more than 20,000 men altogether in 
Alesia, for provisions were scarce. This is the number 
that Napoleon I would give to the inclosed army, and he 
further remarks that the relief army in its manoeuvering 
and in its camping operations behaved as if it were equal, 
not superior in strength, to its adversaries. 

Caesar had five or six weeks of leisure before the relieving 
army appeared. The first part of the decisive engagement 
was marked by a cavalry battle, in which Caesar's German 
horse proved superior to the Gauls. Then a night attack on 
the inclosing lines was tried and failed. A dayhght struggle 
afterwards took place along the weakest part of the Roman 
fortifications, Vercingetorix and the relief force making 
coincident attacks. The Gauls from the outside were driven 
oflF by a skilfully delivered movement on their flank, ex- 
ecuted by Labienus, which forced them to withdraw, and 
at the same time Vercingetorix moved back into the city, 
and soon recognizing his hopeless position, surrendered. 
The fall of Alesia marks the completion of the Gallic wars. 
The spirit of the Gauls was broken; there were afterwards 
various punitive expeditions, but with the collapse of the 
great rebellion the country became pacified and accepted 
its position as a Roman dependency. 



IV 

THE BREAK WITH POMPEIUS AND THE 
SENATE 

Cesar's government of Gaul was now drawing to its 
close. He had added to the Roman dominions a territory 
larger than the two original provinces assigned to him. 
The question now was, what next? The precedents on 
this point were clear enough; they were written large in 
the lives of other recent conquerors, Marius and Sulla. But 
the senatorial party had no intention of allowing Caesar 
to return to Rome with a free hand ; it was to be a struggle 



CiESAR 103 

between the self-interests of a narrow oligarchy and a clear- 
headed effort to attain personal control of the machinery 
of the government. On neither side was regard for legality 
given much weight. Both Caesar and the senatorial party 
used without scruple illegal means; both at the same time 
claimed hypocritically to represent the side of law and 
order. 

As a matter of fact, the old governmental methods of the 
Republic were adapted only to the conditions of a city com- 
munity with a homogeneous population. There had been 
a breakdown years before Caesar's time, and the question 
now was who should benefit from this chaotic situation. 
The senators meant to get Caesar out of Gaul, reduce him 
to the ranks of a private individual, and then ruin him 
by some legal prosecution in connection with his eight 
years of provincial rule. The chief asset of the Senate 
was Pompeius' jealousy of Caesar as a rival of his military 
glory; he was soured because he could not get the position 
and the influence for which his early record had marked 
him out. Pompeius was proconsul of Spain, according to 
the arrangement made at the last meeting of the triumvirs. 
It was only carried out nominally; he had no intention 
of losing his control of Rome, a control which depended 
on his presence at the center of affairs. Contrary to all 
precedent, he governed his province by means of deputies. 
He was also in special charge of the corn supply, a position 
valuable as a means of propitiating the people with votes. 
He arranged to have a five-year extension of his proconsular 
power in Spain, and his influence on the Senate is shown 
by their willingness to allot him 100 talents a year for 
the maintenance of his troops. He used his patronage 
exclusively to advance his own personal interests, obHvious 
of the compact with Caesar, showing altogether that, while 
he meant to stand outside the law, the chicanery of legisla- 
tion could well be used to block the path of his rival. 

Caesar, who had not forgotten to retain the favor of the 
Roman populace by entertainments and benefactions, and 
who had all the skill of a party boss in retaining the al- 
legiance of friends and followers, had three very strong 



104 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

allies back of him, leaving aside his natural superiority in 
capacity and in shrewdness to Pompeius. His conquest of 
Gaul, followed as it was by a very judicious treatment of 
the conquered tribes, gave him the support of a warlike 
population ready to act on his behalf. Moreover, the re- 
duction of the country had unlocked a store of wealth, which 
was naturally in his hands; the slaves alone, collected from 
the captives, represented as capital a very large sum of 
money. Then there were the seasoned legions on whose 
loyalty he could depend. 

The rival claims of the two leaders reached an acute 
stage when Pompeius, now Consul, passed legislation by 
which an interval of five years was required between service 
as a provincial governor and as a magistrate in Rome. 
Caesar's term of office expired in B.C. 49; he had received 
leave to stand for the consulship and had requested to be left 
in possession of his provinces till the end of 49. Now in 
Pompeius' legislation there was required, unless special 
permission were given, personal candidature, and also the 
Senate was given authority to relieve provincial governors 
at any time during the last year of their service. Caesar 
might find himself relieved of his proconsulship before he 
had been elected Consul. It would be a dangerous position 
for him to confront a rival armed with extraordinary 
powers, while he was only an individual citizen. There 
were further grounds of irritation because the senatorial 
party refused to recognize certain administrative acts of 
Caesar, by which he had extended the franchise to various 
provincial towns. In arranging the question of provincial 
succession there was much delay. Pompeius hesitated to 
accept the Senate's drastic measure, by which Caesar would 
be relieved long before he could be elected Consul. He 
made a show of conciliation by shortening the interval and 
also by promising to resign his own command before the 
expiration of his term if the Senate so desired. Caesar's 
agent in Rome, the Tribune Curio, displayed much in- 
genuity in obstructing all measures aimed at his chief, and 
it was plain from the way the political game was being 
played that Caesar's minimum, service as Proconsul till the 



CiESAR 105 

end of 49, and entrance into the consulship on January i, 
48, would be the watchword of his partisans. In all other 
respects he showed himself ready for conciliation and com- 
promise. When two legions were asked for the Parthian 
war, they were promptly sent, and no protest was made 
at their being kept at Capua, when they were no longer 
wanted in the East. Curio, too, was ordered to cease block- 
ing the vote of money to pay Pompeius' troops. 

But the senatorial party were not ready to make terms; 
it seemed to them that with the co-operation of Pompeius 
they could place Caesar in an impasse. They miscalculated 
his personal popularity and his military strength, and now 
were all the more confTdent, because they were successfully 
intriguing with Labienus to detach him from his chief. 

The weakness of the senatorial clique was its obvious 
insincerity in claiming to be the representative of the party 
of law and order. It was absurd to object to Caesar step- 
ping directly from the proconsulship to the consulship as 
an irregularity, when Pompeius had held both offices to- 
gether ; indeed he had been twice Consul within four years, 
entirely in contravention of the required legal interval of ten 
years between the holding by one individual of the highest 
magistracy. 

Marcellus, one of the Consuls in B.C. 51, a determined 
opponent of Caesar, brought matters to a climax by de- 
nouncing Caesar in the Senate as a brigand and asking that 
he should be called a public enemy unless he gave up his 
province by a fixed date. These motions were made as a 
result of the debate whether a successor to Caesar should be 
appointed; they were carried by an imposing majority. An 
equal majority rejected the motion that Pompeius should 
be required to resign. 

Curio, who had as Tribune interposed his veto on the 
first motion, then offered a resolution by which both com- 
manders should be required to resign. This was carried 
by 322 to 320, but no effect was given to it; probably it 
was vetoed by a Pompeian Tribune. Through private chan- 
nels, efforts were being made to prevent a break between the 
two rivals; on account of Pompeius' well-known inde- 



io6 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

cision of temper, the senatorial clique resolved by a bold 
stroke to prevent further negotiations. Marcellus, on the 
9th of December, using as a pretext the rumor that Caesar 
was on his way to Rome with his army, tried in vain to 
get the Senate to declare Caesar a public enemy and to 
authorize Pompeius to take command of the troops in Italy 
and protect the state. Indignant at the timidity of the 
senators, he took matters in his own hands, virtually de- 
claring war on his own responsibility, for he handed over 
the two Italian legions to Pompeius, with the command to 
march against Caesar. Pompeius, though this action of the 
Consul was unconstitutional, accepted the commission; at 
the end of the month he was still confident that Caesar 
would drop his claim to the consulship and that so peace 
would be restored. 

Caesar acted cautiously; he sent for additional troops 
from Gaul and also despatched a message to the Senate 
offering to resign all his provinces and his army, provided 
Pompeius would do the same. In case of refusal, he said 
he would be compelled to take measures for asserting his 
own rights and the freedom of the Roman people. Curio 
was sent with this ultimatum to Rome; it was only with 
difficulty that the letter was read. A motion was passed 
that at a fixed date Caesar should give up his army and 
that his non-compliance would be treated as an act of 
war. There was, of course, the usual obstruction from 
Marcus Antonius, a Caesarian Tribune; the final decree 
by which martial law was introduced and the magistrates 
called upon to see " that the commonwealth took no harm," 
was not passed till the seventh of January. (49 B.C.) 
Lentulus, the Consul, in the meantime had advised the 
obstructing tribunes to leave the city if they valued their 
personal safety. It was this verbal threat which put in 
Caesar's hands the very useful plea that he was acting as 
the defender of the freedom of the Roman people. 

The military strength of the two parties was, from the 
senatorial point of view, altogether on their side; they 
had, they reasoned, the whole empire to draw upon for 
recruits, while Caesar had only his own province. The 



Ci^SAR 107 

difficulty of the senatorial position was, that their forces 
were not together when the war broke out. Of Csesar's 
original thirteen legions, two were now under Pompeius' 
command ; besides this, the latter had in Spain seven legions 
of well-seasoned troops; in Italy he had the two legions 
already mentioned, which originally belonged to the army 
of Gaul ; and another in a state of creation. 

Caesar's chance lay in prompt action, in administering a 
decisive defeat before Pompeius could get his scattered men 
together. While the negotiations were in progress, he had 
only one legion in northern Italy; but two had been sent 
for, and when they were at hand Caesar had, with his allies, 
about 20,000 men, a force considerably superior to that 
of Pompeius, who was especially careful not to lead Caesar's 
old legions against their former commander. With one 
legion of newly recruited men he could do nothing; the con- 
sequence was that in Italy there was practically no resistance 
to Caesar's advance. When some of the newly created 
cohorts joined him, the senators with their commander fled 
to Greece. 

The moral effect of the abandonment of Italy and the 
capital was a great asset for the Caesarian party. The critics 
have condemned Pompeius because he failed to relieve the 
senatorial troops inclosed by Caesar in the town of Cor- 
finium in the Abruzzi. It was a discouraging blow at the 
very commencement of the struggle for the senatorial party 
to see their soldiers and one of their chief partisans, Do- 
mitius Ahenobarbus, left to their fate. But Pompeius was 
in no position to give help; if he had attempted to give 
aid, he would have been defeated and captured. 

Instead of pursuing Pompeius across the Adriatic to 
Greece, Caesar turned away to the conquest of Spain. Even 
if transports were lacking, he might have doubled round 
the Adriatic coast through Illyria, his own province. He 
might soon have got the control of the entire East before 
a sufficient force was collected to oppose him. But if he 
had done so, in the meantime Italy would have been exposed 
to an invasion from Pompeius' Spanish veterans, for the 
senatorial commander would undoubtedly have betaken him- 



io8 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

self there and acted on the offensive. By the time Caesar 
could reach Antioch, in Syria, Pompeius could have occu- 
pied Rome. Caesar therefore consistently followed the prin- 
ciple of striking at the enemy's force where it was concen- 
trated and prepared for effective work. 

Several of the legions newly formed from Italian recruits 
were sent to Sardinia, Sicily, and Africa as crucial points, 
from which a descent might be made on Italy ; others were 
left in Italy itself. Of the veteran legions from Gaul, three 
were despatched to Marseilles, which had taken the sen- 
atorial side, and six were taken to Spain. There were seven 
Pompeian legions in the peninsula under three different 
commanders, Afranius and Petreius in the north, Varro in 
the south. Varro, the celebrated antiquarian and scholar, 
was not an enthusiastic partisan of Pompeius ; there seems 
to be no reason, except his desire to be neutral, why he 
should have weakened the Pompeian forces in the north 
by keeping his legions in the south. In any case, the five 
legions near the Pyrenees, as if conscious of their weakness, 
remained on the defensive, although for a time they were 
opposed only by two legions of Caesar's. 

Caesar's force was undoubtedly numerically superior, for 
there was a considerable contingent of allies, German and 
Gallic, both horse and foot. The plan of strategy adopted 
by the Pompeians was to keep Caesar in check until Pom- 
peius' preparations in the East were completed, that is, to 
wait until he could come to Spain to direct the operations 
there in person, or could make a diversion by attacking Italy 
with the troops raised in the East. No attempt was made 
by Pompeius' lieutenants to stop Caesar's passage through 
the mountain passes of the Pyrenees. This, in any case, 
would have been a questionable operation and apt to cause a 
division of strength in the opposing army. 

The first point of conflict between the two armies was at 
Ilerda, 150 kilometers south of the Pyrenees and about 
forty north of the Ebro. There was a stream in front of 
the town, crossed by a stone bridge, and near this stream, 
on a height south of the town, the Pompeians placed their 
camp. They were well supplied with provisions; and they 



CiESAR 109 

commanded the access to the bridge. As the stream had 
a strong current and was liable to the sudden changes of 
a mountain torrent it would be unsafe for Caesar to make a 
temporary bridge to keep in contact two separated portions 
of an enveloping army. Caesar could not afford to leave 
this strongly encamped force in his rear, for the way would 
be open to them to invade both Gaul and Italy. In case 
of defeat the Pompeians might make a further stand, with 
an advantageous position on the banks of the Ebro. 

For some time the Caesarian army under Fabius re- 
mained inactive before Ilerda. Two bridges had been built 
across the stream, but one of these the current had carried 
away, and at one time two of the legions were in considera- 
ble danger while they were foraging on the southern bank. 
When Caesar took over the command both bridges had 
gone, and the Pompeians, by using the stone bridge, could 
prevent any further bridge building. Food supplies from 
the north were cut off, and the Caesarians were hard-pressed 
for provisions, having exhausted all the food in the neigh- 
borhood of their camp. Caesar managed finally to relieve 
this trying situation by building a bridge outside the range 
of the operations of the Pompeians, who never dared to get 
too far away from their camp. His next move was to try 
to cut them off from the city, their base of supplies, but this 
failed. They were secure where they were, but they grew 
alarmed when some of the native population joined Caesar's 
forces; there was also a prospect of a period of low water 
in the river, when Caesar could use a ford and so completely 
envelop them. 

Under such conditions they resolved to abandon their 
camp and retire to the Ebro to make there another stand. 
The retreat was accomplished without much difficulty, ex- 
cept from cavalry attacks, which delayed their progress 
toward the river, which they would have reached five miles 
south of Ilerda. They had covered most of this distance 
when Caesar's legions suddenly appeared ready for attack. 
In spite of the difficulty of crossing the stream at Ilerda, 
Caesar's men with great valor had braved the dangers of 
the swift current and had marched with such rapidity that 



no THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

they caught up with the Pompeians before sunset. Afranius 
land Petreius soon found themselves outmanoeuvered by 
their opponents, the way to the river being closed to them. 
The only alternative now was to fight or surrender. After 
some hesitation, perhaps due to divided counsels in their 
own camp, they abandoned the attempt to reach the Ebro 
and returned to their original camping ground at Ilerda. 
(August, 44 B.C.) 

Caesar, in the meantime, held his hand, though his 
soldiers earnestly wished for a pitched battle under such 
favorable circumstances. It was a civil war, and Caesar 
had no taste for the kind of butchery practised on the 
barbarians in Gaul on so many occasions. The Pompeian 
commanders soon capitulated; the best force of his oppo- 
nents had now by Caesar's superior strategy been put out 
of action, as effectively as if it had been beaten on the 
battlefield. Such a victory is practically unique in mihtary 
annals. The Roman army at Trasimene and at Cannae, the 
Prussians at Jena, and the French in i870-;7i were anni- 
hilated as military units, but only after hard-fought battles. 

Caesar in this brilliant campaign of forty 3ays deprived 
his antagonists of an entire and efficient army without 
striking a blow. He was all the time ready to fight, and 
the absence of a battle was due to the fact that the com- 
manders on the other side were completely out-generaled. 
The operations followed one another with the system of 
moves on a chess board. The losing party saw the useless- 
ness of a fight and the victor had no desire to shed blood 
needlessly. 

Easy terms were imposed upon the vanquished; the only 
conditions made being that Afranius and Petreius should 
dismiss their troops on the way back to Italy. Varro, in 
southern Spain, who had none of the temperament for com- 
mand, and who was waiting to see which was the winning 
side, soon found himself deserted by the provincials; even 
Gades, where he had contemplated making a resolute stand, 
declared for Caesar. The most serious feature of the cam- 
paign in the West was due to the obstinate resistance of 
the people of Marseilles; they held out for several months 



C/ESAR III 

and surrendered only when they were exhausted by pesti- 
lence and famine. With this siege ended, Caesar was free 
to return to Italy. 

In general, the first stage of the war was in favor of 
the Csesarians; Sicily had been abandoned by Cato, and 
the only dark spot on the record was the decisive defeat 
in Africa of Curio, who had unwisely attacked the Pom- 
peians near Utica while they were being aided by a Nu- 
midian king. On the way to Rome Caesar had to handle 
a case of mutiny in one of the legions, the ninth. The 
soldiers complained of the strict discipline under which they 
were kept, as no plundering was allowed. A signal ex- 
ample was made of them, for the whole legion was dis- 
banded and the men only taken back on condition that 
they gave up their ringleaders. Of these one in ten were 
taken by lot and executed. 

During his residence in Rome, in the interval between the 
first and second stages of the war, Caesar was returned as 
Consul for the coming year (48), after serving a few days 
in the extraordinary capacity of Dictator. Some new legis- 
lation was passed, extending the franchise to provincial 
populations, and an effort was made to relieve the financial 
situation produced by_ the civil war. Money was scarce, 
interest was high, there being, owing to the general uncer- 
tainty, a good deal of hoarding of specie; but nothing was 
done to encourage the wild rumors of a revolution after 
the Catiline model, under which there would be a general 
cancellation of debts. Practically the whole administration 
of civil affairs was in the conqueror's hands. Only a few 
senators were left, most of them having fled to Pompeius' 
camp in Greece, where their presence was a considerable 
annoyance to their leader, who found in them inveterate 
critics and grumblers, anxious to give advice on military 
matters of which they were supremely ignorant. 

Caesar's undivided authority was useful to him; before 
he left Italy he had his consular powers enlarged and the 
city could be left without fear, as his own partisans were 
in control. Caesar's Spanish victory had given him, on land, 
decided superiority over his opponents. He had now, in 



112 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

addition to the eleven old legions, seventeen new ones, 
mostly composed of Pompeian troops, who had transferred 
their allegiance as the fortune of war had changed. Two 
had been lost in the disaster in Africa under Curio. About 
half of his whole strength, twelve legions and looo horse, 
he collected together at Brundisium, intending to sail from 
that port and meet Pompeius' army in Epirus. The rest 
of his forces were scattered about in Italy, Sicily, Gaul, 
and Spain. 

To oppose to the Caesarian main army, the senatorial 
party had only eleven legions; two of them had originally 
served under Caesar, the rest were recruited in the East 
or were old units filled out by fresh additional soldiers. 
Pompeius' chief hope, after the defeat of his army in 
Spain, lay in the possession of a superior sea power. In 
this respect he had decidedly the advantage, for besides 
the Roman fleet there were the ships of the dependent 
Eastern states, while Caesar's ships in the Adriatic had been 
either captured or destroyed. Caesar had, it is true, ordered 
new ones, but he had no seagoing population to draw from, 
to secure sailors. Marseilles, it will be remembered, had 
taken sides with Pompeius and had only been captured with 
difficulty. 

When Caesar reached Brundisium, he found there were 
not enough ships there to transport his army to the Greek 
coast. He adopted, however, the bold plan of using what 
transports there were, and so, taking advantage of a fa- 
vorable wind, carried half his available force, seven legions 
and a corps of cavalry, to the other side. The whole opera- 
tion took only from twelve to fifteen hours. Pompeius 
had not brought his land force to the coast of Epirus, and 
his fleet, as it was the winter season, had not counted on 
Caesar's making the passage at that time. Yet when Caesar 
landed, the situation was anything but favorable for him; 
Pompeius' army had reached the principal harbor of Epirus, 
Dyrrhachium, and his fleet had destroyed part of the trans- 
ports and was keeping vigilant watch to intercept the rest, 
if they attempted to leave Brundisium with the legions 
which remained there. Caesar was cut off from his base, 



CiESAR 113 

but Pompeius dared not attack him, though his army was 
numerically superior. The two armies faced one another 
in inaction, Pompeius waiting for reinforcements, and 
Caesar hoping that there would be a chance for the rest of 
his army to join him, although the way through Illyria was 
impracticable, the country being mountainous and the pop- 
ulation of uncertain loyalty. 

On the other hand, the attempt of the Pompeian fleet to 
blockade Brundisium failed. After waiting two months, 
Marcus Antonius succeeded in making the passage, at a 
time when weather conditions made it impossible for the 
enemy's ships to interfere with the landing. With this 
accession of strength, four legions and additional cavalry, 
Caesar's force was now superior to that of his opponent; 
but Pompeius was strongly intrenched on the shore, close 
to a city well supplied with provisions, and by means of 
his fleet, in communication with the rest of the world. 

The problem of supplies on Caesar's side was a difficult 
one, since the neighboring country was nearly exhausted. 
It was probably this reason which induced him to divide 
his force by sending some three and a half legions into 
the interior of the country, partly to intercept a Pompeian 
relieving army under Scipio, and partly to operate in Greece 
itself with a view of winning adherents for his cause. With 
the remainder he proceeded to inclose Pompeius' camp, not 
so much to force a capitulation, which seemed hopeless be- 
cause at any time they wished the Pompeian fleet could 
carry the army away, as to produce a moral effect on the 
Pompeians, who would be dispirited everywhere, when 
they learned that their leader was not acting on the offen- 
sive. 

The siege operations proved calamitous ; Caesar's veterans 
suffered a severe defeat, and in some places the lines of the 
inclosing fortifications were destroyed. The other side, 
elated by victory, were now prepared for a decisive battle. 
This hazard Caesar declined to take ; instead of this he gave 
his troops time enough to recover from the effects of their 
defeat and then moved off from the coast, taking the road 
to Thessaly in order there to join the other detachments 



114 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

of his army, who were occupied in trying to force Scipio 
to an engagement. 

He was soon followed by Pompeius, and the great 
pitched battle of the year took place on the plains of Thes- 
saly. The two sides were far from being evenly matched; 
probably Pompeius had 40,000 legionaries and 3000 cavalry, 
while under Caesar there were 30,000 legionaries and 2000 
horse. When the armies came in sight of one another, there 
was some preliminary manoeuvering to get the advantage of 
a favorable position, but finally Pompeius advanced some 
distance from his camp on level ground, and Caesar, who was 
about to march away rather than attack under unfavorable 
conditions, decided to give battle. Pompeius' right wing 
rested near a brook with precipitous sides. Relying on this 
to protect his flanks, he placed the light-armed infantry 
and the cavalry, under the command of Labienus, on the 
left wing with directions to make a vigorous onslaught 
on the troops opposed to them. If the enemy gave way, they 
were then to attack the legionaries on the sides and rear; 
in the meantime, Pompeius' own legions were ordered not 
to advance but to await, where they were, the attack from 
the other side. It was hoped that Caesar's men would be 
in confusion before the hand-to-hand conflict began, as the 
distance they would have to traverse was greater than was 
usual in the battles of this period. 

Probably all of Caesar's cavalry were disposed in such 
a way that they faced the opposing cavalry. In order to 
compensate for his inferiority of numbers in this arm, he 
had trained some of his best legionaries to fight inter- 
spersed with the cavalry, after the practice among the 
Germans. The cavalry were separated, too, by a division of 
3000 men, and behind his whole order of battle there was a 
considerable reserve force. It was to be supposed that, even 
without the assistance of this last support, his seasoned 
veterans would withstand the enemy for a long time. This 
expectation was all the more likely to be reaHzed, just 
because of Pompeius' orders that his own infantry were 
to be held back from engagement and should maintain 
their own ground, while his cavalry were at work. 



Ci^SAR 115 

The battle opened with the cavalry charge on the Pom- 
peian side. Caesar's German and Gallic horse, as they were 
instructed, withdrew, and as soon as the Pompeian horse 
followed them, the 3000 men placed previously to support 
them, attacked the Pompeian cavalry in the flank. This 
manoeuver was immediately followed by a quick action on 
the part of Csesar's cavalry. They swerved about, attacked 
in their turn those who had just been pressing them, and 
forced them back in confusion. There was not time enough 
for Pompeius now to get together a mass of infantry to 
protect his cavalry. The hand-to-hand conflict immediately 
began, Csesar's whole force of infantry throwing them- 
selves on the opposing legionaries, who now no longer had 
the support of their cavalry. The pressure on the front 
and sides was too much for the Pompeians; first the left 
wing gave way and then the entire army. (August 8, 

48 B.C.) 

The crucial feature of the whole battle was Csesar's skil- 
ful disposition of the 3000 men, placed, as some authorities 
describe it, in a kind of ambuscade. It was this that upset 
the whole plan of Pompeius' massive cavalry charge. The 
intelligent manoeuvering of the Gallic and German horse, 
first giving way, then returning to charge superior numbers, 
is an illuminating illustration of the discipline prevailing 
in all arms of Csesar's force. The close of the battle was 
followed by the occupation of the Pompeian camp. The 
commander himself fled in deep dejection from Greece, 
and met his death by an assassin's hands, when landing 
from a boat on the coast of Egypt. As a military leader 
he had proved himself in this war unimaginative and 
sluggish. He was a master of the technique of warfare, 
but failed to make use of his opportunities; he seemed to 
have worked out his own campaign in advance, and to have 
followed the scheme with deliberation, but in other respects 
he was resourceless, both when the advantage was his own 
and when the enemy made mistakes. 

With two very much reduced legions and a few horse, 
Csesar pursued his rival to Egypt, where he was too late to 
take him alive. But the factional contests in Egypt as to 



ii6 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

the royal succession and perhaps, too, the desire to get 
his hands on the Egyptian treasury, induced the conqueror 
to use this opportunity of asserting Roman sovereignty 
over the dependent kingdom. It proved to be a rash step, 
for the Egyptians were fanatically attached to their auton- 
omous position, and Caesar's small force was in great dan- 
ger, not only from the Egyptian army, but also from the 
turbulent Alexandrian populace, who tried and almost suc- 
ceeded in shutting him up in part of the city, and in pre- 
venting supplies and reinforcements coming to him by sea. 
At times the Romans were in great danger; there were 
furious combats in the city and in the harbor, and it was not 
till many months had passed that Caesar was master of the 
situation. It took all the resources of his versatile genius 
to hold out until large enough reinforcements came from 
the East to bring the Alexandrians into subjection. 

The whole winter after the battle of Pharsalus was spent 
in this way, and when the war was over in March, there 
was three months more delay in Alexandria, owing, it 
was said, to the fascination exerted over the conqueror by 
the famous Egyptian queen, Cleopatra. During the summer 
preparations were made for an extensive expedition through- 
out the Farther East with a small body of men, the design 
being to pacify the Oriental provinces. This proved not very 
difficult; most of the problems were solved by diplomacy 
and only one battle was fought, that of Zela, in Pontus, with 
Pharnaces, king of Pontus, who had taken advantage of 
the civil war to try to set up an independent rule over a 
large part of Asia Minor. 

While Csesar was absent in the East, his cause in the 
West had been far from successfully handled by his lieu- 
tenants. The Pompeian fleet had given great trouble on 
the Italian coast and in the Adriatic Sea. Affairs in Spain 
had been hopelessly muddled by a corrupt and tyrannous 
governor, who angered the provincials and got into trouble 
with the native tribes. In Rome the victory at Pharsalus 
had been followed by great activity on the part of the Senate 
and popular assembly in heaping additional honors on 
Csesar. He was made Dictator with virtually unlimited 



CiESAR 117 

powers. The administration, so far as any semblance of 
legality was concerned, seemed to have gone to pieces, while 
Caesar was having his troubled experiences in Alexandria. 
No provision had been made for filling up the magistracies, 
and the conduct of affairs fell into the hands of an irre- 
sponsible agitator, Dolabella, Cicero's son-in-law, who pre- 
pared a social program containing, as its chief items, can- 
celing of debts and remission of rents. There were serious 
riots in the city, the mob becoming so powerful that even the 
Caesarian Senate had to call on Marcus Antonius, Caesar's 
chief local lieutenant, to suppress the violence by the use of 
military power. 

When Caesar arrived in Italy from the Orient, there was 
much to be done and not much time in which to do it, 
because all the irreconcilable partisans of Pompeius, trust- 
ing in the help of the Numidian king, Juba, had gathered 
in Africa, where, since the defeat of Curio, they met with 
no opposition in their control of the country. During 
Caesar's stay in Rome, there were various measures passed, 
some to relieve the financial crisis, others to provide against 
disturbances of public order, while political rewards had 
to be distributed to his followers in the way of nominations 
to the Senate, or by the creation of additional places among 
the magistracies. On acccount of the government's em- 
barrassments, there was a resort to the policy of forced 
loans, both from individuals and from communities. The 
private property of Pompeius and some of his adherents was 
sold at public auction, a questionable proceeding which gave 
rise to a good deal of unpleasant jobbery among Caesar's 
friends, who bought the property in, and then, depending on 
their influence with their all-powerful master, tried to evade 
payment. (47 B.C.) 

More serious than these matters of local politics was the 
sullenness of Caesar's troops, which developed into open 
mutiny when they were ordered to make ready for the 
coming campaign in Africa. They refused to budge until 
the promises of money and land made them before the 
battle of Pharsalus were strictly carried out. Caesar dealt 
successfully with the situation; he had no cash to give 



ii8 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

them, but he discharged them, calling them citizens and 
not soldiers, and assured them at the same time that all of 
their demands, with back interest, would be paid as soon 
as he returned from Africa to celebrate his triumph. The 
veterans were placed in a dilemma; they could not turn 
against Caesar, for their hope of reward lay in his success. 
Most of them were taken back as volunteers for the African 
campaign. Before leaving Italy, Caesar again arranged to 
become Consul for the year 46, at the same time making 
arrangements for the distribution of provincial charges. 
One assignment was especially noteworthy: a pardoned 
Pompeian senator, Junius Brutus, nephew of Cato, at the 
time in arms against Caesar, was appointed to Cisalpine 
Gaul. 

A year and a half had passed since Pompeius' defeat 
at Pharsalus, but his cause was being energetically upheld 
in Africa, where his partisans were making a final stand. 
It was here that Scipio, Labienus, Cato, Afranius, and 
Petreius gathered together with the forces that remained, 
ten legions in all, no inconsiderable force in itself; but 
there were besides a large contingent of well-trained cav- 
alry and heavy- and light-armed troops, supplied by Juba, 
king of Numidia, who was implacably hostile to Caesar's 
cause, and who meant to use the divisions of the Romans 
for the purpose of carving out for himself an independent 
kingdom. The only danger point, apart from an attack 
from Italy, lay further west, where the two Mauretanian 
kings, Bocchus and Bogud, acted together as a check to 
the power of the Numidians. They were able to carry 
out their policy intelligently, because they had the help of 
a Roman adventurer, PubHus Sittius, suspected of being 
an accomplice of Catiline, and for this reason an enemy of 
the remnant of the senatorial party in Africa. 

Caesar landed in Africa in December with only a small 
force, and for a time he had to maintain himself in an 
intrenched camp on the coast. His six legions were made 
up of raw material, and it was impossible for him to take 
the offensive, until his veterans, who had been sent for, 
arrived. The situation was saved by Sittius, who made 



CiESAR 119 

a diversion in the West, and so drew off Juba to the defense 
of his own kingdom. Among the provincials, the Caesarian 
cause began to be popular, for they saw in it a protection 
against the nationalist schemes of Juba. Moreover, the 
Roman aristocratic commanders had treated the population 
of the province with scant consideration, so there were 
many desertions to Caesar's side. Owing to the incom- 
petent strategy of his opponents, who do not seem to have 
known how to handle their fleet, communications with Italy 
were kept open. It was Caesar's purpose, after the veteran 
legions arrived, to compel Scipio to give battle. This he 
refused to do, until his hands were forced. When Caesar 
began the siege of the important seaport town of Thapsus, 
Scipio was obliged to come to the rescue, and a pitched battle 
was fought early in April, in which the Pompeian force 
was completely routed. Caesar's troops occupied the enemy's 
camp, and despite the entreaties of their commander, a 
wholesale butchery by the legionaries followed the fight. 

The campaign was soon completed. Utica, where Cato 
commanded the garrison, surrendered, after their leader, 
seeing the ruin of his cause, had committed suicide. Scipio 
perished at sea, Varus and Labienus succeeded in making 
their escape to Spain. Even Juba was ruined by the mis- 
fortunes of his allies, for his own subjects rejected him on 
his return, and he and Petreius met deaths by suicide. After 
setting the affairs of Africa in order, and annexing the 
kingdom of Numidia as a province, Caesar returned to Rome 
after an absence from the capital of 180 days. (46 B.C.) 



V 

C^SAR SUPREME 

With his return begins the period of Caesar's full auto- 
cratic power in the largest sense of that term; honors ex- 
traordinary were heaped upon him and the whole machinery 
of government was in his hands. He was perpetual Tribune, 
and so might check all legislation which did not meet his 



120 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

approval. Moreover, he was made sole Censor, which posi- 
tion included not only the guardianship of manners and 
morals, but also gave him authority over the composition 
of the Senate, and the even more valuable supervision of 
contracts and financial affairs. Besides this there was the 
dictatorship and the consulship. No opposition could come 
from the religious side, for he was Pontifex Maximus and 
a member of all the religious colleges. 

His position was not so novel as the way he used it. 
Sulla also had established personal autocratic rule, and 
Pompeius, who was looked to by the conservatives to pre- 
serve republican government, had been completely oblivious 
of constitutional traditions when they clashed with his in- 
terests. Caesar did not abdicate as did Sulla, nor did he 
hypocritically veil his purposes as Pompeius had done. 
There was much ostentatious display in the way of triumphs, 
festivals, games, and largesses, to celebrate the conqueror's 
victories, nor were deeds of cruelty absent in the Gallic 
triumph. Vercingetorix, who had spent six years in a 
Roman dungeon, was put to death in accordance with old- 
fashioned republican brutality. 

Some citizens felt disgust at the extravagant expenditure 
of the autocrat, but this kind of discontent was not so deep as 
the resentment caused among the upper classes by the in- 
troduction of a virtual monarchy. Their point of view is 
vividly presented in Cicero's correspondence during the 
closing years of Caesar's rule. He suffered all the more 
intensely because he had to belie his own principles and live 
on friendly terms with the man who had destroyed his 
ideals and robbed him of his chances of political distinction. 
Caesar advanced oblivious of criticism, safe in the posses- 
sion of uncontested powers. There were many things to do, 
and there was nothing to which he hesitated to set his 
hands. It was not a time to follow the maxim, " quieta non 
movere." 

Among the most difficult problems was the allotment of 
land to the discharged veterans. The plan followed was 
not to establish them in new colonies, but to incorporate 
them in existing communities. Apparently private rights 



CiESAR 121 

were respected, for no serious complaints are recorded. A 
much-needed reform was taken in hand when Caesar, using 
his power as Censor, reduced the number of those who re- 
ceived the dole of corn from 320,000 to 150,000 persons. 
Equally creditable was the extension of the Roman citizen- 
ship to non-Italians, special classes being chosen for this 
privilege, such as medical practitioners and teachers. Other 
measures were economic, such as the restoration of cus- 
toms duties, or had a social aim like the attempt to extend 
free labor where slaves were commonly used. Municipal 
administration received special attention, rules being made 
for the maintenance of streets and lanes, for the control of 
wheeled traffic, and to prevent public ground from being 
occupied by the erectors of stands and platforms. 

In general, the exceptional position of the city of Rome 
was not preserved ; rather, provincial towns were organized 
after the model of the imperial metropolis. Probably it 
was this bold step in reducing Rome to the level of other 
towns, a proceeding strictly in harmony with Caesar's con- 
sistent and established policy of equal and fair treatment 
to the provinces, that led to the idle bit of gossip that he 
thought of transferring the capital to the East, to Alexandria 
or Troy. Criminal legislation was stiffened by adding 
to the recognized sentence of exile forfeiture of property 
as a penalty. Care was taken that Roman citizens should 
not travel abroad for a lengthy period, a provision probably 
intended to protect the provincials from the presence of 
needy individuals who would make use of official favor for 
questionable financial schemes. But perhaps the most strik- 
ing of all these measures from the personal point of view 
was a law restricting the tenure of provincial governorship. 
There were to be no more chances open for a series of 
campaigns under one leader such as Caesar had waged in 
Gaul. 

Under this personal government there was little place for 
a Senate except as a registering body, and Caesar did not 
always allow it to perform even this humble function. It 
came to have a make-believe existence. Decrees were 
drawn up in its name that had actually never come before 



122 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

it, and the conqueror's unpopularity with the Senators was 
increased by the introduction of new members, who had 
no aristocratic traditions to maintain. 

As an example of the versatility of his mind, no better 
one can be given than the fact that Caesar's work in bring- 
ing order out of chaos was extended to reorganization of 
the old Roman calendar, under which the year lasted only 
355 days, and attempts were made to make the solar and 
civil years coincide by the occasional introduction of an in- 
tercalary month, a process often guided by political or 
superstitious motives. Since experienced scientists from 
Alexandria were called on as experts, Caesar's reformed 
calendar of 365^ days with an intercalating day every 
fourth year was sufficiently accurate to stand for centuries, 
and with a slight correction is still in use in the civilized 
world. 

The machinery of legislation, important and sound as it 
was, was not entirely depended upon to reveal the whole 
policy of the ruler. Caesar is said to have explained in his 
public speeches that his ideal was not a despotism, but 
the paternal rule of a father over his children. He tried 
to live up to this standard, making a noteworthy display 
of doing so by his generous treatment of his adversaries 
during the period of the civil war. Some of his most 
truculent enemies were pardoned by an act of grace, a treat- 
ment which induced Cicero to try his hand again at the 
kind of decorative oratory he had displayed in his early 
panegyric on Pompeius. Popular as this clemency was, it 
did not shelter Caesar from severe criticism when he re- 
newed his amour with Cleopatra, now summoned to Rome, 
it was said on his invitation, and it was supposed that he 
was about to marry her, a foreign queen, as the first step 
to the attainment, by regular process, of regal power for 
himself. 

Invincible as Caesar was in war, and conciliatory as he 
was to those who had served against him, there was still 
a body of Pompeian partisans in Spain, Labienus and Cnaeus 
Pompeius among them, who felt that there was reason for 
resistance and a chance of success. Caesar's governors in 



C^SAR 123 

the peninsula had proved incompetent either to hold the 
loyalty of the provincials, or to prevent the mutiny of the 
troops when the Pompeian leaders appeared on Spanish 
ground. All they could do was to clamor for their leader's 
presence. He left Rome hurriedly in December, 46. This, 
his last campaign, was conducted with an army inferior in 
numbers to that of his opponents. It was an arduous strug- 
gle, characterized by conspicuous barbarity on both sides, 
for neither depended on Roman legionaries alone. The 
Pompeians had native allies and liberated slaves, and both 
sides were helped by auxiliary troops from the wild tribes- 
men of Mauretania. After winning and taking the town of 
Cordova, Caesar forced the eldest son of Pompeius to fight 
a pitched battle at Munda. (March 17, 45 B.C.) 

The two armies met here in a life and death struggle, 
Cnseus Pompeius appealing to his men to avenge his father, 
while Caesar's veterans, responding to the battle cry of 
Venus the Victorious, the patron goddess of the Caesarian 
house and its mythical foundress, made it plain that the 
cause for which they fought was also a personal one. 
Neither side could look for quarter ; Pompeius had already 
shown his temper by cruel dealings with the provincials who 
had opposed him, and Caesar's men were not likely to deal 
mercifully with those who had rekindled the flame of civil 
war and so deprived them of a well-earned peace. Both 
in attack and defense each side showed equal bravery and 
obstinacy. For some time the issue seemed dubious ; Caesar 
to rally his own men had to take sword in hand and engage 
in the thick of the struggle. Finally, when the Pompeians 
made a change of their order to help the wing of their army 
which was being hard pressed by the tenth legion, the move- 
ment gave the Caesarians a chance to put their opponents 
in confusion and finally to flight. On the Pompeian side 
30,000 are reported to have been slain; among the dead 
were Labienus, Caesar's right-hand man in the Gallic cam- 
paign, and Cnaeus Pompeius himself, who escaped from the 
field but was taken and put to death afterward. 

Before the return to Italy the affairs of the Spanish 
provinces had to be set in order; special favors were dis- 



124 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

tributed to the loyal communities in the way of franchise 
or immunities, and this reconstructive work seems to have 
been accompanied by financial exactions. The return to 
Italy was not made until September, and for a whole month 
Caesar remained outside the walls of Rome. To mark the 
victory at Munda there was nothing tangible to do in the 
way of increasing the autocratic power of the supreme and 
all-embracing magistrate and executive; there were, how- 
ever, no visible limitations to the servility of the Senate 
and Assembly. Fifty days' thanksgiving, yearly games com- 
memorative of the victory, special distinctions of dress, ex- 
traordinary honorific titles, a state residence on the Pala- 
tine, built after the model of a temple of the gods ; special 
statues in holy places connected with communal worship, 
all these were voted, and most of them accepted by the 
conqueror. 

After the Spanish war, gold and silver coins were minted, 
having on one' side the laurel-crowned head of Caesar, with 
the inscription Caesar Imperator, and on the reverse the 
figure of conquering Venus, lance in one hand and on the 
other a Victory. The conqueror was now treated as being 
beyond the ordinary human standard. This recognition of 
superhuman qualities is made plainer in an inscription, 
placed under a relief of Caesar (introduced on a metallic 
map of the world), which reads, "he is a demigod." The 
Oriental idea of deification, opposed as it was to the whole 
genius of government in Rome, was now adopted there. 
With Julius Caesar began the custom of deifying the supreme 
ruler of Rome, and it is significant that, although he refused 
a ten-year consulship, he did not protest against this use 
of religion for the purpose of adulation. 

Now that the supreme authority was unassailably placed 
in the hands of a single individual, who was protected in 
its exercise from any legal opposition in Rome, Caesar 
showed no hesitation in taking the full responsibility of 
his position. The Western provinces had for some time 
been practically under his personal control. He was virtu- 
ally the founder and the creator of the Roman Empire in 
the West. The foundation laid by him lasted for hundreds 



Ci^SAR 125 

of years. But as military lord of the Roman world he had 
also to deal with the situation of the East. There espe- 
cially the extension of the Parthian rule was dreaded, and 
also anticipated, for the moral effect of the defeat of 
Crassus a few years before had been immense. Caesar 
saw that a war in the East could alone restore the prestige 
of Rome, and also that it was not safe to leave the con- 
duct of such a war in other hands. His plan was first to 
conquer the Parthians, and through their territory to reach 
the Caspian Sea. Afterwards by the way of the Black 
Sea he meant to march along the Danube, where there were 
wild tribes which had to be taught to respect the power of 
Rome, and finally to return to Italy by the way of Germany. 
Such was the mighty program now developed in the vision 
of the conqueror. In its details it bore the marks of the 
bold imagination and the political sagacity which char- 
acterized his genius, but the immediate necessity was to 
bring the Parthian war to an end, and so restore confidence 
on the Eastern frontier. After the return from Spain the 
transfer of the bulk of the Roman army to the East was 
being prepared for. 

It was in connection with this purpose that there first 
arose, apparently, the idea of conferring on Caesar the title 
of king. It was said that an oracle of the Sibylline Books 
had declared that only a king could get the better of the 
Parthians in war. Such a designation was especially an- 
tagonistic to Roman political principles; personal rule was 
tolerated, but not divine right by family descent. Some 
preparations had been made for the introduction of this 
alien conception by the act of the Senate, according to which 
the title " Imperator," associated directly with the name of 
Caesar, should pass to his legal heir. The road to a succes- 
sion being now marked out, the whole question of the title 
could not long be left undecided. Imperator was locally 
understood, but made no claim on subject races. To test 
popular feeling, Marcus Antonius offered the Imperator 
a diadem, the insignia of royalty. This was refused, but it 
was noted that the offer did not call forth the enthusiastic 
response that was anticipated, nor was Caesar's rejection 



126 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

of the symbol openly deplored. Still, the desire for some 
accommodation with the terms of the oracle was not aban- 
doned. It seemed possible that in Rome Caesar might bow 
to public opinion by employing only the title of Imperator, 
while in the provinces he could exercise royal powers and 
use the royal title. It was supposed that some arrangement 
of this sort would be made by a regular decree before he 
set out for the Parthian campaign. 

Opposition was bound to develop at this point from the 
convinced republicans in the Senate; they were strongly 
represented there, and Caesar wias responsible for their pres- 
ence. He had gathered about him men of both parties, 
making a special effort by his generosity to win over some 
of the most convinced of the senatorial partisans who had 
followed Pompeius and had fought the victor to the end of 
the African campaign. But even Caesar's own appointees 
and adherents were by no means reconciled to the pro- 
gram which would openly do away with the republic; they 
wished it still to exist as an institution, and they had no 
wish to provide for the continuance of personal rule beyond 
the terms of Caesar's own life. 

The party of Pompeius was by no means inactive; they 
wrote freely as apologists for their own side, and they did 
not hesitate in their intrigues to hold up Caesar as an am- 
bitious autocrat guilty of cruelty on the battlefield, and 
now that peace was restored, using his claims to mask his 
aim to establish a tyranny. These views were found among 
the Senators. Caesar either thought he was unassailable or 
reckoned on their gratitude as an obstacle which would 
separate their theory and their practice. This attitude was 
only one example of a general want of alertness that seemed 
to characterize the conqueror after the close of the Spanish 
campaign. 

All the old republican antipathies against royalty were 
called into life. Caesar's statue was now seen on the capitol 
between the figures of Rome's ancient kings. Another 
statue, that of Lucius Junius Brutus, the founder of the 
republic, recalled to men's minds the quick and ready 
method of deaUng with kings and tyrants. This old-fash- 



Ci^^SAR 127 

ioned republican doctrine was not lost on a disciple and 
nephew of Cato, Marcus Brutus, who had made peace with 
Csesar after the battle of Pharsalus. He claimed to be a 
descendant of the famous liberator, and by this very fact 
had influence in heading any movement against the new 
autocratic system. His personal abilities were of a mediocre 
order; but he was obstinate and self-consciously vain of 
his integrity, and could be paraded as a concrete argument 
to strengthen the republican cause, when others might hesi- 
tate to take extreme steps. 

But the real motive power in the organization of the con- 
spiracy against Caesar was found in Caius Cassius, also 
holding praetorian office like Brutus. The two had not be- 
fore been friendly, although both were partisans of Pom- 
peius. Cassius, with his dark and gloomy temperament and 
sarcastic tongue, was not likely to accept the sententious 
pomposity of his brother Praetor at that high standard of 
value exacted by Brutus from his friends. What drew 
them together was their common republican sympathies. 
Brutus was asked by Cassius what would be his attitude 
at the next meeting of the Senate when the question of the 
royal title would be discussed. Brutus replied that he would 
not be present. Cassius said that Brutus's position as 
Praetor imposed upon him the obligation of attending the 
meeting. At this Brutus answered that if he went he would 
defend the cause of liberty. 

Such was the basis of the understanding between the 
two, and the agreement for common action was accepted, 
not only by the remnant of the old Pompeian party, but by 
those as well who called themselves the partisans of Caesar. 
Even Caius Trebonius, who had served the cause of Caesar 
in the city and on the battlefield for many years, agreed 
that the freedom of the Roman people was to be preferred 
to the friendship of an individual. He had once before 
spoken plainly to Marcus Antonius of Caesar's ingratitude 
and of the misfortunes of the republic, but had found no 
sympathy. Another of Caesar's companions in arms, Tullius 
Cimber, felt personally injured because the commander had 
exiled his brother. 



128 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

Both sides had grievances. The Pompeians were not to 
be won by tactful treatment to accept Caesar's schemes, 
while his own followers often felt that their allegiance had 
secured no more favors from him than the open enmity of 
his former opponents. All experienced the common pres- 
sure of an exalted and unlimited authority, and were pre- 
pared to act together. The exact details of the conspiracy 
are obscure; they must have been arranged between the 
15th of February and the 5th of March, on which date 
the Senate was to be called together in a building erected 
by Pompeius, to decide whether Caesar was to be allowed 
to bear outside of Rome the title of king. The conspira- 
tors were at one against accepting such a proposal. 

Caesar seemed not to realize his danger, since he paid 
no attention to the warnings that came to him. His mind 
was filled with the prospect of the Eastern war. Every- 
one realized that another victory would render all opposi- 
tion unavailing. The conspirators would have to act be- 
fore Caesar could set out for the new campaign. In the 
plan to be followed the leading Senators were all ac- 
complices. The way would be easy, provided Caesar's fel- 
low Consul, Marcus Antonius, who could be relied upon 
to defend him, were prevented from coming to the Senate. 
Trebonius was to see that Antonius was detained and kept 
occupied elsewhere, while another of Caesar's friends of 
long standing, Decimus Brutus, undertook the necessary 
persuasion of the dictator should the latter hesitate to come 
to the Curia. 

Caesar, as had been arranged, took his seat in the con- 
sular chair; the place next his was vacant, his colleague 
not being present. There was no time to be lost, for Mar- 
cus Antonius might appear at any moment. Tullius Cimber, 
showing much vehemence, drew near to the Consul, making 
a plea for the return of his brother from exile. As Caesar 
hesitated, the prearranged signal for the murder was im- 
mediately acted upon. Cimber with both hands tore apart 
Caesar's toga; at the same time Casca aimed at his neck a 
blow which glanced and struck the breast. Caesar appears 
to have thought that it was only an act of personal venge- 



CiESAR 129 

ance from which he could protect himself. He sprang to 
his feet, snatched his toga from the hands of Cimber, and 
threw himself on the arm of Cassius, at the same time de- 
fending himself with the stylus of his tablet. He was 
strong and active, and might have got the better of his 
two antagonists, but as he turned on Casca he received a 
wound in the side, then several others from the conspira- 
tors as they closed in upon him. No one of the Senators, 
whom he had created, came to his help. All was over in 
a moment, for he made no further resistance when he saw 
the arm of Marcus Brutus, specially bound to him by per- 
sonal favors, raised to strike. He fell at the feet of the 
statue of Pompeius, his body pierced by twenty-three 
wounds. The corpse was brought back to his dwelling by 
three slaves in the litter in which he had been carried to 
the Senate. All the rest of his retinue of clients and friends 
had fled. 

The assassination, its method of accomplishment, and the 
men who planned and carried it out, bound as all of them 
were by some kind of obligation to the conqueror, can 
hardly win sympathy even from those who hate autocratic 
rule, and think the man who destroys a democracy beyond 
the law. The conspirators had not the personal character 
of the traditional tyrannicides of Greece. There is some- 
thing of a pose in the whole action. Brutus and his fel- 
lows were representing a clique and cannot be called in 
any sense the executors of the will of the people. It would 
have been more fitting if the old precedent followed in 
the legendary expulsion of the former kings of Rome, ban- 
ishment, had been adopted here. After all, Caesar was giv- 
ing the Roman empire a better kind of government than 
the Senatorial oligarchy. The cause of the conspirators 
was weak, and the men who carried it out, as events soon 
showed, were even weaker than their cause. Only verbally 
were the interests of republicanism represented by the mur- 
derers of Caesar. The Senate and People of Rome existed 
as they had done of old; but the elements in each were dif- 
ferent. In the people of Caesar's days there was nothing 
that resembled the ancient community of the plebeians. 



I30 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

Military expansion had long since destroyed the old civil 
constitution; the assemblies in the Forum were legal only 
in name, for they disguised the irregularities of mob rule, 
giving opportunities for violence and corruption on the 
largest scale. Even the Senate was virtually a new creation 
filled with Caesar's enemies and certainly incapable from its 
membership of preparing a genuine restoration of repub- 
lican institutions. It had stood, even before the civil war, 
at a time when the oligarchy of wealth and descent had 
recovered its lost ground through the patronage of Sulla, for 
governmental inefficiency. 

The one man with genius and creativeness adequate to 
restore a practical republican government was Caesar him- 
self, and to him republican ideals meant nothing. He was 
a reaUstic statesman, who saw the road to monarchy as 
the short cut to good government, and took it unhesitatingly. 
At no point in Caesar's career is there any evidence that he 
believed in anything but personal rule. Alike skeptical of 
higher appeals and with a contempt for shams, he never 
wavered at any stage in his well-planned pursuit of auto- 
cratic power. His fight with the Senatorial oligarchy, who 
alone blocked his way, was conducted with the directness of 
a military campaign. There was little personal feeling, for 
he treated men as pawns, whether they were friends or 
enemies. When their power to help or to oppose him was 
gone, they were of no significance; so, at the close of the 
civil war, it was easy to exercise a clemency or a patronage 
which meant little. There was a superficial amiability in 
these acts which indicated a contempt of individuals rather 
than spontaneous humanity. His cold, clear-cut character 
seemed to work out problems in a bloodless atmosphere 
alike free from prejudices and from prepossessions. 

Caesar's benefactions and his enmities were alike self- 
centered. The whole force of a nature extraordinarily 
versatile and incessantly active was turned to one end, and 
the various stages of his political career are explained by 
the closing years of his life. It was his purpose to over- 
throw the Senatorial aristocrats. The purpose was a most 
worthy one, and it is difficult to see how it could have been 



CiESAR 131 

done except by extra-legal means, for the Senatorial fac- 
tion made the laws, and so held all the cards in their hands. 
Their motto of government was " Heads I win, tails you 
lose " ; and the claim of legality with such a leader as 
Pompeius, who had no respect for the constitution, was 
altogether disingenuous. Caesar was a shrewder politician 
than any member of the Senatorial faction, far more brilliant 
in conception and far quicker in action than his rival Pom- 
peius. After clearing the field of his opponents, he showed 
less creative capacity than in his preparatory work. 

Of course, the time was short between his murder and the 
close of the last campaign in the civil war, but the govern- 
ment he established was a kind of sham republicanism 
after the Sullan model, only with a different center of grav- 
ity. He seems to have planned a better system of ad- 
ministration, and meant that it should be worked in a 
way regardful of the public interests of a great empire; 
but the machinery was to remain the same, except that 
the various magistracies were either to be held by himself 
or filled by men of his own selection. The shadow of 
republicanism was to cover a monarchical rule, and in 
this respect the conservatism of Caesar was epoch-making, 
for it continued to influence the whole genius of the Roman 
imperial system for centuries. 

As a general Caesar was fortunate in having at his com- 
mand an army which represented the result of years of tech- 
nical training acquired in the almost continuous campaigns 
of the Romans. He did not have to create his army; the 
material for his conquests was ready to hand. He added 
nothing new to the art of war as it was already known, 
but the legion under him had a commander of great versa- 
tility, who understood how to use it to the best advantage 
under any given conditions. This genius in providing for 
the maintenance of his army repeatedly gave him the ad- 
vantage over the enemy in the Gallic wars, for it enabled 
him to defer the decisive engagement until all conditions 
were favorable for his own side. 

Another characteristic of his strategy was his skill in 
using fortified camps. He was a born engineer, and the 



132 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

engineering feats of his campaigns are evidently recounted 
with great satisfaction in his " Commentaries." It is evi- 
dent that they played a decisive part in securing success 
both during the Gallic campaigns and in the civil war. 
Indeed, one of the most important contributions of the 
Romans to the art of warfare was superior technique in 
fortifications, and in protection of camps, aided by which 
the defensive of a numerically smaller force could be made 
to balance the offensive of superior numbers. The sole 
method of overcoming such resistance was by starving out 
the army placed in a fortified camp. In his campaigns 
Caesar showed remarkable versatility in using the argu- 
ment of hunger as well as the argument of the sword, and 
he was quick to turn from one to the other as occasion re- 
quired. 

He seems never to have burdened himself with a pedantic 
following of rules. Plutarch tells us he had read the ac- 
counts of Alexander's great victories. So far as his own 
'' Commentaries " are concerned, there is a studied vague- 
ness, which, as has been mentioned, often leaves important 
points in obscurity. He is very sparing of giving personal 
reflections on the progress of the war he is describing. It 
is noteworthy, therefore, that he once blames Pompeius 
for repressing the enthusiasm of his troops, saying that it 
is the general's business to encourage the emotional element 
in battle. 

He is also fond of calling attention to the role played 
by fortune or chance, and so he has been often blamed for 
the risks he was willing to take because he trusted too much 
to luck, and it is said that he conducted warfare in the 
spirit of a gambler. Like Napoleon, he appears to have 
believed in his star, but the references to fortune in the 
" Commentaries " are probably a literary device intended 
to impress a popular audience who, though they had lost 
beHef in the gods of polytheism, were ready to recognize 
an incalculable and mysterious element in human life. 

But there was in his strategy more than a spontaneous 
brilHancy adequate to rescue him from the difficulties of a 
position he had not anticipated. In his campaigns we see 



Ci^SAR 133 

evidence enough of caution and calculation. Especially 
in the matter of numerical superiority he was careful not 
to allow himself any hazards in a decisive engagement. 
The battle of Pharsalus is the only one in which it is cer- 
tain that he won a victory with an army inferior in num- 
bers to his opponent. In this case nothing else could have 
been done, for Pompeius, who was in control of the sea, 
would have removed his army from Greece if he had been 
outnumbered. There was but one way of forcing a pitched 
battle under these circumstances, and it was part of superior 
strategy to induce an enemy relying on superior numbers 
to confront troops superior in quality. But such chances 
Caesar only took when obliged. There was little of the 
bravado element in his wars. The situation was outhned 
beforehand. The almost mathematical result bears witness 
to the presence of that same type of cool reflection which 
in the political side of his career makes the founder of 
the Roman Empire something of an enigma. It is hard to 
believe that a man can be just as unfeeling and unethical 
in statesmanship as when he is directing the movements 
of masses of troops. Caesar's genius stands for an abnormal 
development of intellectual power disciplined to serve the 
ambitious purposes of a man bent on enjoying personal 
rule, who, to a unique degree, had measured the capacity 
of other men and himself. 



CHARLES THE GREAT 



INTRODUCTORY 

Out of the chaos in Western Europe due to the collapse 
of Roman provincial rule in the fifth century, there came 
into being various Teutonic states. They all bore the 
mark of the early tribal organization of the German 
peoples and took up the work, more or less successfully, of 
assimilating the orderly elements and traditions of Roman 
polity. In the Italian peninsula the permanence of these 
political creations was short-lived, except in the case of 
the Lombards, who maintained an enduring rule, largely be- 
cause they adhered to a crude policy of isolation and set 
well-considered limits to their desire for expansion. In 
Spain, the Goths, despite the predominance of the Roman 
provincial element, succeeded, with the help of the Church, 
in attaining a fairly centralized organization for several 
centuries until it was swept aside by the irresistible pres- 
sure of the Moslem conquest. To the North, in France, 
which was first of all the seat of various Teutonic peoples, 
the Franks, under the astute leadership of their tribal mon- 
archs, gradually absorbed all the territory of the old Roman 
province of GalHa, adding to it the land to the east which 
had been the home of their ancestors before they had 
crossed into the Roman province. 

Chlodvig, the founder of the Merovingian line of kings, 
was not a ruler of the type of Theodoric the Ostrogoth. In 
contrast with the Teutonic kingdoms of Italy and Spain, the 
Merovingian showed a stubborn conservatism. After 
Chlodvig's death there was no man of first-rate ability 

134 



CHARLES THE GREAT 135 

during the period of Merovingian rule with the dubious ex- 
ception of Dagobert. These were long years of division, 
lawlessness, and bloodshed. The Franks kept possession 
of their conquests, but the royal line produced a succes- 
sion of weak and helpless rulers who showed themselves 
incapable of casting aside the traditions of tribal rule. The 
demand for centralization was recognized and met by the 
representatives of the noble family of Heristal who, because 
they were landlords over wide estates, became, as mayors of 
the palace, de facto possessors of sovereign authority. To 
them the Prankish chieftains throughout the land looked 
for leadership, and did not look in vain, for their efficient 
statesmanship soon arrested the disintegrating tend- 
encies of Merovingian rule, and gave their people such an 
amount of cohesive strength that they became the foremost 
representatives of Teutonic power in Western Europe. It 
was the House of Heristal which saved the Franks from 
the fate of the Visigoths, for it was Charles the Hammer 
who met the Moslem host on the field of Poictiers and swept 
them back across the Pyrenees. 

Charles' son, Pippin, carried on the work of his father; 
he was strong, courageous, and cautious, a thorough type 
of the opportunist statesman, willing so far as he was 
concerned to control his people under the title of Mayor of 
the Palace, while the titular dignity of king was kept in- 
tact in the Merovingian family. The bloodless revolution 
which made Pippin a monarch de jure from a ruler de facto, 
was due to outside pressure, and this pressure came from 
the See of Rome, which appealed to him for help as the 
representative and most powerful Catholic leader in West- 
ern Europe after the Emperors at Constantinople had 
alienated the population in Italy by the part they played in 
the Iconoclastic controversy. 

The Popes of the eighth century, seeing the inability of 
the Eastern Empire to protect its Italian possessions, and 
unwilling to give them support against the aggressions of 
the Lombards, were face to face with a difficult problem. 
They did not wish to be absorbed in the Lombard kingdom, 



136 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

and were just as much afraid of seeing any restoration of 
power to the hands of the Emperor's representative, the 
Exarch of Ravenna. 

Pope Stephen played a bold stroke of genius when he 
crossed the Alps to ask the ruler of the Franks to save 
the religious capital of Western Christianity from capture 
at the hands of the Lombard kings. Nor was his political 
sagacity yet exhausted, for he persuaded the Mayor of the 
Palace to regularize his own position by taking the title of 
king under the sanction of the Holy See. This was an am- 
bitious design, unprecedented in the earlier pages of Papal 
history. Even Gregory the Great had no thought of be- 
stowing the royal crown on any Teutonic tribal chieftain. 
The action was evidently suggested by the plan prepared 
some years before, when, with the cooperation of the Pope, 
it was proposed to revive in Italy a native Italian emperor 
to lead the people of the Peninsula against the church policy 
of Constantinople. This scheme was from the beginning 
a forlorn hope, and it had turned out to be a failure. There 
was not sufficient military strength in Italy, apart from the 
Lombards, to back up a revived Emperor of the West, and 
it is clear that the Lombards would have made short work 
of any such ruler, even if there had not been among the 
Italians a party who looked up to the Exarch of Ravenna 
as the natural head of their civil government. 

The negotiations with Pippin ended successfully. The 
Pope's prestige was enormously increased. Instead of look- 
ing forward to becoming the captive of a Lombard king, 
he became himself the bestower of royal dignity on a man 
who had at his disposal such vast military power that the 
passage of his army across the Alps into Lombard terri- 
tory brought about the reduction of the Lombard kingdom 
to a status of dependency on a Prankish ruler. 

Pippin, as a loyal churchman, followed the Pope's coun- 
sel, but he seems to have done so with distinct reservations. 
The traditional Prankish policy had been the complete sub- 
ordination of the Church to the State. It is no wonder 
then that many of the Prankish nobles disapproved of 



CHARLES THE GREAT 137 

Pippin's act, which reduced their monarchy to a gift from 
the hands of the Pope. Pippin did all he could during the 
rest of his lifetime to keep clear of further Italian compli- 
cations. He never crossed the Alps again, and he was very 
careful not to depress the Lombard power in Northern Italy 
and so give Stephen an excuse for demanding additional ter- 
ritory. As a temporal ruler the Pope's authority had been 
substantially increased by the cession of lands which he had 
claimed from him on the basis of the so-called Donation of 
Constantine—a fictitious instrument which Stephen appealed 
to when there arose the question of the disposition of the 
territory once belonging to the Exarchate of Ravenna Ac- 
cording to the legend, Pope Sylvester, the contemporary 
of Constantine, when the capital of the Empire had been 
removed to Constantinople, had received from the Emperor 
extensive donations of Italian territory, both on the Penin- 
sula and on the adjacent islands, over which he was to rule 
with the power of a temporal sovereign. To Pippin this 
legendary Donation, because of its presumed sanction at 
the hands of a revered Emperor and Pope, was sacred. He 
was willing to be an instrument in carrying out the terms 
of the sacrosanct compact, but he refused to go farther 
than this, and for the rest of his life he maintained an 
attitude of reserve in according additional favors to the 
Holy See. 

Pippin's reign came to an end as calmly as though the 
Ime of descent had been unbroken. Even the evil tradi- 
tions of the Prankish monarchy with respect to the inherit- 
ance of the crown were not cast aside. Just as Cromwell 
and Napoleon felt the weight of custom in their relations 
with the members of their families, when they were arrang- 
mg to perpetuate the power of their own creation, so Pip- 
pm, the diplomat, the cautious statesman, could do, or at 
least did nothing to alter the bad and impracticable tribal 
custom of division of patrimony. This practice caused the 
downfall of the Merovingian line, and had started the revo- 
lution by which the fortunes of the House of Heristal had 
been assured. This is only one of many anomalies which 



138 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

followed the breaking up of the administration of the 
Roman Empire, and which testified to the absence of initia- 
tive on the part of the Germanic peoples when they were 
called upon to solve problems of government, for which 
they had had no preparation. Rulers who did not hesitate 
to show their individuality in other ways proved fearful of 
violating tribal customs on questions of divisions of prop- 
erty and family precedence. 

The new line of Prankish rulers had apparently learned 
nothing from the vicissitudes of the elder house. At the 
death of Charles Martel, the division of the kingdom be- 
tween his two sons would have certainly endangered the sov- 
ereignty of his family had not the difficulty been averted by 
the abdication of Carloman the elder. Yet Pippin, on his 
deathbed, had not scrupled to make the same blunder of 
dividing the realm between his two sons, Charles and Car- 
loman. Almost immediately after their father's death the 
heirs, apparently mutually suspicious, separated from each 
other, and had themselves separately proclaimed kings by 
the Frankish nobles, and received anointment at the hands 
of the bishops, Charles at Noyon, Carloman at Soissons. 

The diplomacy of the dead ruler was revealed in the kind 
of disposal he made of his realm. It was an equal division 
only on paper ; for the arrangement of the shares was such 
that the elder son was left with such manifest superior 
advantages as to territory that the younger brother could 
not venture to compete with him. As his share Charles had 
the part of his father's kingdom from which the Frankish 
hosts derived their chief military strength, viz. : the lands 
from the Main to the English Channel. Besides this, he 
received the western portion of Aquitaine, the province 
whose conquest had cost Pippin a hard struggle of seven 
years, and which, therefore, might become a dangerous 
center of warlike enterprise if it were placed entirely in 
the hands of the younger brother. Carloman had as his 
share the Suabian lands on both sides of the upper Rhine, 
and the entire Mediterranean coast from the Maritime Alps 
to the frontier of Spain. In addition to this there came to 



CHARLES THE GREAT 139 

him the eastern half of the territory adjacent to such towns 
as Clermont, Rodez, Albi, and Toulouse. 

In geographical extent there was but little advantage on 
the part of the elder brother, but the territory of the 
younger from a military point of view was far inferior. 
Carloman in case of war would have against him, under the 
command of Charles, the whole military power of the 
Franks. There was no pretense of friendship between the 
two new rulers ; it seems they had never been friendly. The 
reason of the alienation may have been because the birth 
of Charles preceded the formal transfer of the Prankish 
crown to his father. He was, therefore, the son of a 
Mayor of the Palace, while Carloman, though younger, was 
son of the King of the Franks. 

The question of the duration of external harmony be- 
tween the brothers was of especial importance in its effect 
on the situation in the Italian peninsula. Some of the 
Frankish nobles had by no means approved of Pippin's 
policy of opposition to the Lombard kings, and had criti- 
cised his willingness to protect the integrity of the dominions 
of the Pope, whenever he was appealed to from Rome for 
aid. The efforts of the Queen Mother Bertrada were evi- 
dently intended to promote a better feeling between the 
Franks and the Lombards, for she personally arranged a 
marriage between Charles and the daughter of Desiderius, 
the Lombard king. The protests of the Pope were unavail- 
ing when he urged, from a decidedly interested point of 
view, that Charles should marry a wife from his own peo- 
ple; although he recalled the oaths taken, when the two 
Frankish rulers were children, that they would have the 
same friends and the same enemies as the Church. 

The whole situation, political as well as personal, was 
suddenly changed by the death of Carloman in 771, and 
by domestic difiliculties in Charles' own household which 
led to an alienation from his mother and caused the repudia- 
tion of his Lombard wife. Immediately after his brother's 
death Charles was acknowledged as sole king throughout 
the Frankish territories, and the alliance with the Lombard 



140 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

party in Italy was brought to an end. Gerberga, Carloman's 
widow, and her sons betook themselves to the court of 
Desiderius, which now became a natural refuge for all who 
were discontented with the new ruler of the Franks. 



II 

CONSOLIDATION OF RULE 

In the meantime, Pope Stephen, the man who had made 
the Frankish alliance the cornerstone of papal diplomacy, 
had died. {^^^2.) He was succeeded by Hadrian, who pro- 
claimed his purpose to follow the rule of peacemaker in the 
complexities of ItaHan politics, and so to induce Romans, 
Franks, and Lombards to live in mutual harmony. Despite 
his pacific intentions, he was unable to tolerate the mihtary 
aggression of the Lombards on the cities in the Patrimony 
which had been turned over to the Pope by Pippin, includ- 
ing Ravenna itself. 

Papal protests against this invasion proved useless. Desi- 
derius threatened to appear with his army before the walls 
of Rome itself, and he actually approached as close to the 
city as Viterbo, having in his army the young heirs of Car- 
loman, whose claims to their father's inheritance he wished 
to have legitimatized by having them anointed by the Pope. 
He was deterred from carrying out his plan, and the Pope 
met the daring of the Lombard leader with a formal warn- 
ing, that the king and all his host would be placed under 
the ban of anathema if they entered the territory of Rome. 
Desiderius therefore withdrew. 

To the Frankish delegates who appeared in Rome to in- 
vestigate the condition of affairs between the Pope and 
Desiderius, Hadrian probably explained that his difficulties 
had been occasioned by his refusal to anoint the pretenders, 
Carloman's sons, at Desiderius' request. There would not 
be wanting, also, appeals to Charles to fulfil his solemn en- 
gagements to stand by the Roman See. Desiderius, in his 



CHARLES THE GREAT 141 

interview with the envoys, treated them curtly ; he was evi- 
dently looking forward to settling the issue with Charles by 
arms. There was not only the difference with the Pope, 
due to Lombard aggression on the papal cities, but he 
must have felt aggrieved because Charles had refused to 
live with his daughter. There was also the fact that at 
the court of the Lombard king, Carloman's children had 
been received and were being used in the role of pretenders, 
as tools in an intrigue against the ruler of the Franks. 

Desiderius had prepared for invasion from the North 
by fortifying the pass at Susa, the " debouchement " in 
northwestern Italy of the road regularly taken by the 
Frankish army when they invaded Italy. But while methods 
of military defense were being looked to, Desiderius saw the 
need of preparing for the coming struggle by consolidating 
his rule over his adherents and dependents. The important 
Duchy of Benevento was allied with him by the bonds of 
family relationship. The Duchy of Spoleto was less im- 
portant, as it had lost in territory and in independence dur- 
ing the reign of Desiderius, but means were taken to con- 
ciliate the Church by gifts to important abbeys. Indeed, so 
numerous were these alienations of the royal lands to ec- 
clesiastical foundations, that the king's policy in annexing 
cities and territories in the Patrimony of the Pope had be- 
come as much an economic as a political necessity, for the 
owners of the alienated land could only in this way be com- 
pensated for their losses. The abbeys were of strategic 
importance ; many of them, and these the largest, were situ- 
ated on the inner lines of communication. The cities and 
castles were still surrounded with their Roman walls, and 
under the Lombard monarchy the many roads and bridges 
had been kept in order. 

On the other side of the Alps, there was less unanimity as 
to the necessity of the Frankish army passing the frontier. 
Charles' plan of intervention was agreed to by the Frank- 
ish nobles, though the opposition against an Italian expedi- 
tion had always before in Pippin's day had a strong backing. 
But, in order to show a temper amenable to compromise, 



142 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

Charles offered to continue peaceful relations with Desi- 
derius, on condition that the sum of 14,000 solidi be given 
as an indemnity to the Franks. This offer was refused. 
A general assembly of the Prankish host was held at Geneva 
by Charles, and after dividing it into two parts, the army 
passed over into Italy by Mont Cenis and by the Great St. 
Bernard. Again Charles stopped to treat with Desiderius, 
but to no purpose. 

The Lombards withdrew from their strongly fortified 
position where the Alpine passes widen out into valleys, 
and it was rumored that the Prankish army, aided by Lom- 
bard treachery, had found by-paths to avoid the strongly 
held Lombard camps and had marched down into the plain 
after Charles had stayed some time at Novalese, an abbey 
richly endowed by his family, where he took provisions for 
his march. 

In the meantime, Desiderius had fled to Pavia, his capital, 
preparing for a long siege. Most of his army was now 
scattered; a portion of it retreated, accompanying his son 
Adalghis, with the widow of Carloman and her children, to 
Verona, the strongest of the Lombard citadels. But the 
Lombard resistance was most ineffective; the Beneventines 
apparently took no part in the wars, while the people of the 
Spoletan duchy, deserting their duke, took the oath of al- 
legiance to Hadrian, and many places in central Italy sur- 
rendered to the Pope. 

Charles began the siege of Pavia at the end of Septem- 
ber, purposing by the capture of their chief city to end 
completely the dominion of the Lombards, and so to finish 
the work left half done by his father. Leaving the bulk 
of his army in front of the walls of Pavia, he took a divi- 
sion of Prankish troops and entered Verona without op- 
position. Adalghis fled to Constantinople. Carloman's wife 
and heirs were now in the hands of the conquerors. 

There was no longer fear of opposition from other Lom- 
bard towns. The siege had already lasted six months, but 
the town was well provided with food, and was too strong 
to be taken by assault. Charles now left the siege with 



CHARLES THE GREAT 143 

a large escort in order to celebrate the Easter festival at 
Rome. He was the first Prankish sovereign who had visited 
the city. Pippin, his father, notwithstanding his close alli- 
ance with the Church, had always scrupulously avoided 
making the pilgrimage to Rome, probably because he did 
not desire to pass through Lombard territories. 

Charles was received with the honors ordinarily given 
to the Exarch of Ravenna. As he entered St. Peter's, the 
choir sang the anthem, " Blessed is He that Cometh in the 
Name of the Lord," and there were many public demon- 
strations of friendship between the Pope and the King. 
But it is worth noting that Charles asked the Pope's per- 
mission to enter the city, and great care had to be taken 
to prevent acts of violence between the residents of the 
city and the visitors from the North. The most important 
step taken before Charles left the city to return to Pavia, 
was the formal transfer to the Pope of a document signed 
by Charles and his nobles, authorizing the retention by the 
Pope of the existing patrimony of the Holy See, and also 
engaging that all private property belonging to it should be 
restored. 

Pavia held out stoutly, though sorely tried by famine and 
pestilence; but there was no hope of relief. Finally, Desi- 
derius surrendered his capital and his person at the begin- 
ning of June, 774, and with this surrender the independent 
Lombard monarchy ends. Charles, from this time forth, 
took the title of King of the Lombards. The Lombard 
chieftains crowded into the city to do him homage, and 
when he crossed the Alps, he took with him Desiderius and 
his family, not forgetting the royal treasury of the Lom- 
bards. 

Charles had been mindful of his obligations to the Pope, 
and regarded himself as bound to carry out the policy of 
his father. But he plainly had no thought of turning over 
any large share of the territory of the Italian peninsula into 
the hands of the Roman See. In Rome it seemed to be 
expected that the friendly and generous ruler from across 
the Alps would make Hadrian master of the whole of mid- 



144 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

die Italy. But now that Charles was ruler of the Lom- 
bards he showed that in dealing with the Italian situa- 
tion he did not intend to be guided by idealistic politics. 
Charles also put an interpretation on his title of Patrician 
that made it clear he meant to be the predominant factor 
in the states under the Pope's control. He behaved as 
master in cases affecting the Pope's territory when Ha- 
drian's rights over Ravenna were resisted by the Archbishop 
of that city; and he also exercised his sovereign authority 
over Spoleto when the Duke rose in revolt against the 
Franks. 



Ill 
THE CONQUEST OF THE SAXONS 

While Charles' intervention in Italy may be considered 
as the logical outcome of the policy inaugurated by his 
father, his long struggle with the pagan Teutonic tribes, 
spoken of loosely by contemporary historians as the Saxons, 
was part of a program of expansion for which he alone was 
responsible. Dwelling in a territory extending from the 
Elbe, on the East, nearly to the Rhine, on the West, the 
Saxons in three tribes formed a primitive confederation 
occupying the various divisions of Germany known in mod- 
ern times as Hanover, Brunswick, Oldenburg, and West- 
phalia. Beyond the Elbe there was a fourth section of the 
Saxon stock extending over a territory nearly coextensive 
with the modern Duchy of Holstein. Though the name sug- 
gests a plausible identity, the Saxon territory of the eighth 
century had no connection with the present kingdom of 
Saxony, which only to a small extent comprises land that 
once belonged to these ancient Saxons. Though unlike their 
kinsfolk to the West, the Saxons held to their old tribal 
creed, they were in no sense savages, for they had long 
since abandoned a nomadic life and had become settled 
tillers of the soil. But probably the primitive institutions 
of the Germans described by Tacitus still existed among 



CHARLES THE GREAT 145 

them, and, from the point of view of the Franks, they must 
have seemed undesirable neighbors, largely because of 
their obstinate attitude toward all attempts to convert them 
to Christianity. As the missionaries who undertook the 
task were either Franks themselves or acted under the 
patronage and support of Frankish rulers, the feeling to- 
ward the Saxons was anything but friendly, especially as 
since the time of the Merovingians on several occasions the 
Saxons had recognized the Franks as their overlords, by 
paying tribute. It is probable, too, that the Saxons were 
not very scrupulous in respecting the frontier of their 
Western neighbors. There must have been frequent raids 
to annoy the Franks, though there is absolutely no proof 
that the Saxons ever contemplated invading Frankish ter- 
ritory by expeditions organized on a large scale. The 
situation had, however, been serious enough to call forth 
active intervention from Charles's father Pippin, who, in 
753, had advanced as far as the Weser, where, by an 
overwhelming display of military strength, he had forced 
the Saxons to pay tribute and not to oppose the preach- 
ing of Christian missionaries in their territory. 

Five years later, in another expedition, Pippin advanced 
beyond the Weser, occupying the Saxon strongholds be- 
tween that river and the Lippe, and again securing from 
the Saxon chiefs promises that the terms on which peace 
had been made should be carried out. 

The religious conditions of the peace were especially 
obnoxious to the Saxons, who were firmly attached to the 
faith of their fathers. They had a simple form of nature 
worship, that displayed itself in a passionate reverence for 
trees and mountains, regarded as the concrete expression of 
the powers governing the world. The new expedition of 
the Franks practically took the form of a crusade; for 
Charles saw in the gods of the Saxons only demons in- 
imical to the Christian faith. Starting from Worms and 
accompanied by a large number of ecclesiastics, who were 
to war against Saxon paganism, the Frankish army, seem- 
ingly, met no^ resistance, and Charles took and destroyed 



146 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

without difficulty the Saxon shrines Irminsul and Eresburg. 
He withdrew, satisfied now that there was no hindrance in 
the way of winning the land to Christianity. The character 
of the expedition is accurately indicated in a brief sentence 
from the life of Sturm: "He [Charles] gave the servants 
of the Lord power for teaching and baptizing." 

The Saxons, before the Franks retired beyond the Rhine, 
renewed the terms of peace previously concluded with Pip- 
pin, gave hostages for their good behavior, and seemingly 
made no protest against the introduction of the Church 
hierarchical system in their land. But the war with the 
Lombards gave the Saxons the opportunity of casting aside 
their pledges; they did not desire Frankish ascendancy, 
and, still less. Christian missionaries. The real situation 
on his Eastern frontier was so patent that as soon as the 
Italian expedition had ended with the annihilation of the 
Lombard kingdom, Charles (775) set out to war on the 
Saxons, resolved either to force them to accept Christianity 
or to destroy them as a people. His attack was skilfully 
and rapidly managed; one of their strong places, Sigiburg, 
was taken, and Eresburg, previously captured, was turned 
into a Frankish citadel. The Saxons hesitated to strike 
back until the Franks were withdrawing across the Weser. 
Near Brunisberg, where they contested the passage of the 
Frankish army, the Saxons were outnumbered and de- 
cisively beaten. Marching with picked troops Charles ad- 
vanced into the territory of the Eastphalians, where their 
leader, Hessi, hastened to take the oath of fidelity to the 
Frankish monarch and gave hostages. The same method of 
forcing a capitulation was tried successfully with the Saxon 
tribe, the Angarians. 

But meanwhile, the Westphalians had assaulted the 
Frankish camp in their land, and had been able to occupy it 
partially. They were forced, however, to withdraw, and 
while they were retreating they were met by the division 
of the Frankish army under Charles, and were defeated; 
so they were obliged to accept the same terms as the East- 
phalians and the Angarians. Within a short period the 



CHARLES THE GREAT 147 

overlordship of the Franks had come to be recognized by 
the three leading tribes of the Saxon people. 

It only needed the outbreak of fresh disturbances in 
Italy to show how imperfect had been the so-called pacifica- 
tion of the Saxons. When Charles was drawn away be- 
yond the Alps by an attempt to revive the Lombard king- 
dom, his absence was immediately taken advantage of by 
the Saxons, who rose in revolt against the Franks. Even 
the fortress at Sigiburg was hard pressed. An imposing 
army was gathered by Charles at Worms in 776, with which 
he crossed into Saxon territory and again occupied Eres- 
burg. His authority was soon restored. Bands of Saxons 
comprising whole families came to the Frankish camp as 
humble petitioners and willingly allowed themselves to be 
baptized. There were evidently two parties among the 
Saxons, one willing to carry out the conditions of peace, 
the other ready by any subterfuge to reject them. The 
irreconcilable faction finally lost heart and withdrew. 

In y'jy, Charles held in Paderborn his first general as- 
sembly; here appeared Saxons from all parts of the land 
and solemnly pledged themselves willingly to give up their 
freedom and their property if they denied the Christian 
faith and broke their oath of allegiance. But such verbal 
assurances were not more binding than they had been 
before. 

More expeditions (779 and 780) were necessary, and in 
780 specific steps were taken to intensify the ecclesiastical 
organization already felt as a burden by the unwilling con- 
verts. The land was divided into parishes, and provision 
was made for systematic preaching and for the admin- 
istration of baptism. 

Along with the expansion of the Church, the secular or- 
ganization of the P>anks went hand in hand. The country 
was placed under the supervision of counts, the leading 
Saxon chiefs being appointed to the positions. In one of 
the capitularies assigned to this time, the slightest deviation 
from Christianity is treated as a most serious crime. The 
murder of a deacon is punished by death, while an assault 



148 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

on a count only entails confiscation of property. Simi- 
lar severity is exercised against those who are guilty of 
sacrilege, who break into churches, or who violate the rule 
of fasting. 

There seemed to be a fear at this time lest the popular 
Saxon leader, Witikind, who had failed to appear at the 
assembly, might organize a pagan revival, and so head a 
successful revolt against the Franks. This fear was re- 
alized, for the drastic character of the new religious legisla- 
tion only provoked the opposition it was designed to meet. 
Witikind soon returned to his people and quickly organ- 
ized a revolt. The character of the struggle showed itself 
in attacks on the Christian missionaries, and in the destruc- 
tion of the newly erected churches, the places selected for 
bishoprics and abbeys suffering most. This insurrection 
was for a time successful, and a Prankish army, through 
the divided counsels of those who were leading it, was 
defeated and forced to retreat. But the personal appearance 
of Charles on the field was enough to turn the tide and 
was followed by the defeat of the Saxons and by pacifica- 
tion according to the familiar terms. 

The question was what to do with those who had taken 
up arms. It was decided to put to death all who had 
united with the heathen against the Christians. This merci- 
less penalty was applied in its fullest rigor. Those who 
were taken captive in the revolt numbered in all four 
thousand; and of these, five hundred were beheaded at 
Verden, a savage act of retaliation which disgraces the mem- 
ory of Charles, and which even the crudeness of the times 
cannot excuse. Besides, it did not accomplish its purpose, 
for it only embittered those who were related by kin or 
by friendship to the massacred Saxons. The revolt against 
the Franks hitherto had never been universal, but now the 
whole people rose en masse with sudden determination. 
Yet even with this temper they were not hardy enough to 
take the offensive ; so, while they were preparing to resist, 
Charles, by a quick movement, surprised them, and divided 
their army by his unexpected onslaught. But the first bat- 



CHARLES THE GREAT 149 

tie, though unfavorable to the Saxons, was not decisive. 
The second ended in a complete victory for the Franks, who 
took many prisoners and much booty. The backbone of 
Saxon resistance was now broken, and Charles with his 
army marched through the whole territory as far as the 
Elbe. 

In all these Saxon campaigns, three victories stand out 
above the rest, dividing the monotonous levels of revolt, 
conquest, and pacification. The first, at Brunisberg, opened 
a way into Saxon territory for the Prankish army ; the sec- 
ond, at Bocholt, brought about the suppression of a partial 
insurrectionary movement; the third, on the Hase, settled 
the fate of paganism in Germany. But the state of the 
Saxon country required constant watching, and we find 
Charles taking up his station at Eresburg in 784-85, ready 
to repress any incipient movement of revolt. 

At Paderborn the Prankish assembly was attended by 
the Saxons, and this meeting was signalized by further ex- 
treme measures to protect the Church. The defenders of 
their independence met with all the more harshness because 
they were sturdily loyal to a primitive ancestral faith. 
Charles saw in them only worshipers of evil spirits, — 
men who are charged in the capitularies with the practice 
of offering human sacrifices and with eating human flesh. 
In his ruthless dealings with the Saxons, Charles was the 
champion of a higher civilization fighting against a lower, 
but one must at least question the legitimacy of his policy, 
specifically because it claimed Christian aims and professed 
Christian sanction. But we know it seemed righteous in 
Charles' own eyes, and his satisfaction was increased when 
he received, after the long military campaigns were over, 
the Saxon Witikind, and his companion in arms, Abbio, as 
voluntary converts to the Christian faith. With his baptism 
(785) Witikind drops into obscurity, and we only hear 
that his descendants became known for their loyalty to the 
new religion. 

From 785 to 792 the Saxons did not stir ; they sent regu- 
larly their assigned contingents to the army of the Franks, 



I50 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

and they took no part in the Bavarian troubles. However, 
at the beginning of the expedition against the Avars in 793, 
there was a fresh revolt, marked, as the previous ones had 
been, by the destruction of churches, the massacre of priests, 
and the return of the people to idolatry. From 794 to 799 
the Franks under Charles were busy each year in enforc- 
ing Frankish rule in Saxon lands by a specially thorough 
military occupation of the country. 

Further drastic measures of pacification were required, 
for whenever Charles returned West to his own domains, 
he took with him a large contingent of the conquered peo- 
ple, men, women, and children. Lands were given them, 
and so the natural racial traits of Saxon unity were de- 
stroyed and their fidelity to paganism broken. It is esti- 
mated that a third of the population was removed, and the 
extent of this enforced emigration may be judged from the 
fact that in 804 ten thousand men were deported from 
two districts of Saxony and their land given over to some 
of Charles' Slavic allies who had rendered efficient serv- 
ices to him during these wars against their hereditary ene- 
mies. The Saxons gave up the fight only when their strength 
was broken, and when the last adherents of paganism 
yielded to superior force. Only then was the country 
from the Elbe to the Atlantic under the sway of a single 
sovereign, and united by the profession of the same faith. 
The conquered land was effectively occupied, and the loy- 
alty of the inhabitants to Charles' empire was secured by 
the establishment of three richly endowed bishoprics, 
Bremen, Miinster, and Paderborn, under whose supervi- 
sion the work begun by the Frankish armies was completed. 



IV 
OTHER MILITARY ACHIEVEMENTS 

The struggle with the Saxons lasted thirty years in all, 
and its completion brings us almost to the end of Charles' 
reign. In order to close our survey of the military opera- 



CHARLES THE GREAT 151 

tions by which the integrity of the CaroHngian Empire was 
preserved, or its frontiers enlarged, it is necessary to take 
up the narrative of various warhke expeditions and opera- 
tions which demanded the ruler's attention while the Saxons 
were making their heroic struggle to cast off the Prankish 
yoke. 

Hardly two years after the destruction of the Lombard 
monarchy, there was such unrest in the small Duchy of 
Friuli, which was ruled over by Hrodgaud, that a punitive 
expedition was needed to restore order. Apparently Hrod- 
gaud was intriguing with other Lombard leaders to pro- 
cure the restoration of the exiled son of Desiderius and so 
to reestablish Lombard independence. The project failed. 
Hrodgaud's allies among his own people withdrew support. 
Adalghis, the " pretender," did not leave Constantinople to 
head the revolt, consequently the Duke of Friuli was obliged 
single-handed to meet the avenging Prankish army. The 
revolted cities were soon captured; Hrodgaud himself ap- 
pears to have lost his life on the battlefield, and after this 
short campaign, which took place in the early months of 776, 
Charles crossed the Alps in June to take up again the con- 
quest of the Saxon lands. 

This Lombard revolt, although it was an incident, and 
involved only a small territory, was followed by stringent 
measures of repression. Paul the Deacon, the Lombard 
historian, tells of the treatment of his brother, who, it 
seems, took part in this insurrection. " My brother lan- 
guishes a captive in your land, broken-hearted, in naked- 
ness and want. His unhappy wife, with grieving lips, begs 
for bread from street to street. Pour children must she 
support in this humiliating manner, whom she is scarce able 
to cover even with rags." 

Much more serious than this outbreak among the Lom- 
bards was the disaffection of Tassilo HI, Duke of Bavaria, 
who resented Charles' aim to turn a nominal suzerainty 
into an effective control. United closely to the Prankish 
ruler by a common descent from Charles Martel, Tassilo, 
whose family, the Agilolfings, had governed Bavaria for 



152 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

two hundred years, had no mind to sacrifice the autonomy 
of his people. Even under Pippin he had showed that he 
placed a very loose interpretation on the ties of vassalage 
which bound him to the Franks. After Charles' accession 
he continued his policy of isolation, showing by his failure 
to render assistance in the campaign against the Lombards 
that he did not recognize any obligation to further the am- 
bitious schemes of his overlord. During the revolt of Friuli 
he observed an attitude of neutrality, an act which, coming 
from a vassal, could signify only that the Duke of the 
Bavarians claimed an independent position. Such a claim 
Charles was in no mood to allow. In 780, during one of 
the intervals in the progress of the Saxon conquest, Charles, 
accompanied by his wife and his sons, Carloman and Louis, 
spent Christmas at Pavia, the Lombard capital, and in Eas- 
ter, 781, visited Rome, where the royal children received 
baptism at Pope Hadrian's hands, and were raised by the 
ecclesiastical ceremony of anointment to the royal dignity, 
Carloman taking the title of King of Italy, and his brother 
Louis, that of King of Aquitaine. During this stay at 
Rome, the relations of Tassilo to the King of the Franks 
were discussed by Charles and the Pope. The result was 
that a joint deputation was sent from both Charles and 
Hadrian to Bavaria to remind its ruler of his obligations 
as a vassal of the Prankish kingdom. Tassilo soon after 
appeared personally at Worms to renew the oath pre- 
viously sworn to Pippin. Hostages were exchanged on both 
sides, but the tension continued. We find Tassilo, a few 
years later, in 787, sending representatives to Rome in order 
to secure the Pope as an intermediary to establish an agree- 
ment with Charles and put an end to the mutual irrita- 
tion of both parties. The terms offered by the Bavarians 
were not regarded as acceptable by the representatives of 
Charles, and the Pope himself solemnly appealed to the 
Duke to fulfil his promises as a dependent ally and so avoid 
the evils of war. 

After his return from Italy Charles held his court at 
Worms and summoned Tassilo before him as the first step 



CHARLES THE GREAT 153 

in acknowledging the overlordship of the Prankish monarch. 
In the eyes of Charles, swift dealing with a disobedient 
vassal was all the more necessary, because Tassilo, by his 
marriage with the daughter of Desiderius, might easily 
make himself the center of a revival of pro-Lombard feel- 
ing in Italy. Three Prankish armies from different quar- 
ters invaded Bavaria, and Tassilo soon found himself forced 
by this display of superior strength to give up his dreams 
of independent power. He formally resigned his duchy and 
received it back again from Charles' hands, at the same 
time taking an oath as vassal and giving hostages, among 
whom was his own son. But not long after this Tassilo, 
who complained openly that his position of dependence 
was insupportable, was charged by members of his people 
with intriguing with the Avars. He was accused of treach- 
ery, and was condemned to death by legal process. But the 
sentence was reduced by Charles' intervention to imprison- 
ment in a monastery. His wife and children met a like 
fate, and from this time on Bavaria was treated as Prankish 
territory. Like Saxony, it was divided into jurisdictions 
under counts and placed under the supreme military control 
of one superior official. 

The overthrow of Bavaria as a separate power laid the 
foundation of a consolidated Germany, North and South, 
and, as in Middle Germany, there was the same system 
of counties and bishoprics. Unity was still far from be- 
ing thoroughly realized, but that the germ of national con- 
sciousness was already present is proved by the readiness 
of the Bavarians, after the loss of their ruling duke and 
their autonomy, to cooperate with the Pranks in resisting the 
attacks of the Avars. 

Just at the time that the tension in Bavaria was reaching 
its acute stage, the situation in the Lombard Duchy of Bene- 
vento, whose Duke Arichis seemed to be taking his cue from 
Tassilo, demanded attention. There were no actual hostili- 
ties, for the presence of Charles in the duchy was enough 
to bring the turbulent Duke to reason. His position of 
vassalage was marked by a payment of an annual tribute 



154 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

of 7000 solidi. The duchy was mildly treated by Charles 
because it was useful as a buffer against the provinces of 
the Eastern Empire, with which his relations were far from 
being always friendly. The result was that the Beneventines 
played a double role, sometimes befriending the Greeks and 
rejecting the Frank overlordship, and on other occasions 
engaging in hostilities with their Southern neighbors, as al- 
lies of the Franks. There were a number of Frankish ex- 
peditions necessary to keep the Lombards of Benevento and 
their dukes in mind of their duty as a vassal state, and once 
there was a noteworthy failure of Frankish arms in 792, 
when the campaign they had begun in the territory of the 
duchy was abandoned. 

Apart from the campaigns in Saxony, in Italy, and in 
Bavaria, necessary to the integrity of the Frankish empire, 
there were various frontier wars undertaken, not for the 
purpose of incorporating fresh territory, but rather to im- 
press upon contiguous peoples the power and prestige of 
Frankish arms. The occupation of Bavaria brought Charles 
in contact with the Avars, and his control of Aquitaine gave 
him as near neighbors the Moslems of Spain, those enemies 
with whom his grandfather, Charles Martel, had tried con- 
clusions on the historic field of Poictiers. 

This defeat had been inflicted on the conquerors of Spain 
at a time when the Ommayad Caliphate ruled over a united 
Moslem world. But the great internal revolution had 
broken this unity in 750, eighteen years before the accession 
of Charles. The last Ommayad Caliph, Merwan, after the 
great battle of Mosul, had been obliged to flee from Damas- 
cus to Egypt and had there met his death. Shortly after- 
ward eighty members of his house were massacred by 
treachery at a banquet. Only one of the family escaped, 
Abderahman, the son of Merwan, who, after many ad- 
ventures, reached Morocco, and was there invited to assume 
the rule of Moslem Spain, where the jealousies of the 
Emirs, the lieutenants of the far-distant Caliph in the East, 
had produced an era of misgovernment and faction. 

So began in 755 the Caliphate of Cordova, and with it 



CHARLES THE GREAT 155 

the most brilliant period of Mohammedan rule in Spain. But 
Abderahman was not accepted as supreme head of the Span- 
ish Moslems without active protest; the Eastern Caliphate 
of the Abbasides had many supporters in the peninsula, and 
it was to Charles that they appealed for aid in resisting the 
Ommayad house. Naturally, the internal disputes of the 
Spanish Moslems constituted by themselves no ground for 
Prankish intervention. But the appeal was reinforced by 
promises that various Spanish cities would open their gates 
if Charles would undertake to cross the Pyrenees with an 
adequate army. This offer was made to Charles by Mos- 
lem envoys, who appeared before him at Paderborn, where 
he was holding a formal assembly (placitum) of the Prank- 
ish host during the early course of the Saxon war. The 
prospects of valuable territorial acquisition prompted the 
ruler of the Franks to embark on this hazardous expedi- 
tion. There is no proof whatsoever it was undertaken to 
aid, as a kind of crusade, the feeble kingdom of the As- 
turias, where the heirs of the Visigoths were still main- 
taining the Christian cause against the Moslems. 

In the spring of 778 the Christian army in force, contain- 
ing contingents of Lombards and Bavarians, as well as 
Franks, crossed the Pyrenees, part of it passing into what 
afterwards became the Kingdom of Navarre, while the sec- 
ond division moved along the Mediterranean coast. Both 
were to meet at Saragossa, but before the junction was made 
Charles laid siege to Pampeluna, which had previously be- 
longed to the small Christian kingdom of the Asturias. The 
city was taken, and at Saragossa hostages were received to 
guarantee to the Franks the possession of certain towns be- 
tween the Ebro and the Pyrenees. With this inconclusive re- 
sult the aggressive part of the campaign ended. Probably 
Charles hesitated to penetrate further into the country after 
hearing that Abderahman had lately defeated an army of 
Berbers who had come over to Spain to help the cause of 
the Abbaside Caliph. It was now evident that the prospects 
of the opponents of the Ommayad house were anything but 
brilliant, and it must have seemed advisable for the Prankish 



156 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

army to withdraw from Spanish territory. Summer had 
already begun before Charles turned his face homeward, 
after leveling the walls of the city of Pampeluna to the 
ground to prevent its inhabitants from revolting against 
him. 

It was during this retreat that the famous disaster befell 
the arms of Charles, to which literary history has given an 
importance beyond its real deserts. On the 15th of 
August, at Roncesvalles, while the main army was slowly 
winding its way among the defiles of the mountains, the 
Basques applied to the Franks the guerrilla tactics they had 
successfully used against all the invaders of Spain, Roman, 
Gothic, and Moslem in turn. They made a sudden attack 
on the rear guard, and this division of the Prankish army 
was utterly cut to pieces. Many of the closest followers 
of Charles here met their death, among them Roland, pre- 
fect of the march of Brittany, of whom we know nothing 
apart from this brief notice in the contemporary histories, 
but whose exploits were celebrated in popular legend, where, 
under the glamour of poetical description, he has come to 
occupy a place as a warrior and hero almost the equal of 
Hector. 

The defeat remained unavenged, for it was realized that 
the pursuit of the Basques in their mountain fastnesses was 
impossible. This expedition into Spain not only accom- 
pHshed little in the way of permanent conquest, but served 
to provoke the Moslems to successful reprisals extending 
over a series of years in the Southern part of Gaul. The 
country was harried by the invaders, and towns as important 
as Carcassonne and Narbonne were attacked and the coun- 
try about them ravaged. Dissensions among the Moslems 
themselves brought a respite, and, aided by insurgents 
against the authority of the Cordovan Caliphate, the Prank- 
ish officers in Aquitaine later on extended the sphere of 
Prankish influence far into the Iberian peninsula. Before 
the end of Charles' reign Navarre and Pampeluna were 
again occupied, and he could number Barcelona among the 
cities of his empire. 



CHARLES THE GREAT 157 

After the conquest of Bavaria, the campaign against the 
Avars, a people closely allied to the Huns, was brought 
about by their threatening attitude on the Eastern fron- 
tier, where they showed such constant hostihty to the 
peoples of German stock that in his military handling of 
the problem Charles had the ready cooperation of the 
Saxons themselves. After a preliminary campaign in 791, 
in which the Franks advanced as far as the confluence of 
the Danube and the Raab, the decisive struggle took place 
in 795, when the Prankish army, under Pippin, the son 
of Charles, taking advantage of dissensions among the 
Avars, succeeded in forcing the famous armed camp of 
the Khan called the Ring, and returned with an immense 
amount of booty stored there, the fruits of many successful 
raids on Christian towns and monasteries. In 809 the 
Avars, hard-pressed by the Slavs, were glad to place them- 
selves under the Emperor, but their number had been so 
reduced by warfare that a contemporary historian speaks 
of their lands as being deserted, their treasures confiscated, 
and their nobility wiped out. 

Operations against the Slavic tribes were taken up in 
earnest after the reduction of the Saxons, though we hear 
of one marauding expedition against them as early as 789. 
In 805 and 806 Slavic territory was overrun by Prankish 
armies under the command of the Emperor's lieutenants, 
and two strong outposts were established for purposes of 
military observation of their movements. These posts, on 
the 'Saale and on the Elbe, became the nucleus for the de- 
velopment of the German cities of Halle and Magdeburg. 

After describing the wars of Charles, Einhard, his con- 
temporary, gives a summary of the conqueror's achievements 
that deserves to be repeated : " Such are the wars," he 
says, " which this most powerful king waged during forty- 
seven years. For as many years as these he reigned in the 
different parts of the earth with the greatest wisdom and the 
greatest success. So the kingdom of the Pranks, which he 
had received from Pippin, his father, already vast and 
powerful, nobly developed as it was by him, was increased 



158 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

nearly twofold in extent. Before his day this kingdom in- 
cluded only that part of Gaul which lies between the Loire 
and the Rhine, the ocean and the sea of the Balearic Isles, 
and that portion of Germany occupied by the Franks (who 
are called Eastern) whose country lies between Saxony and 
the Danube, the Rhine and the Saale, the river which divides 
the Thuringians from the Swabians. Besides this, the Ale- 
manni and the Bavarians acknowledged the overlordship of 
the Franks. To these possessions Charles added by his 
conquests first Aquitaine and Gascony, all the chain of 
the Pyrenees, and all the territories as far as the Elbe. Then 
all that part of Italy which extends from the valley of 
Aosta to lower Calabria, where is the frontier between the 
Beneventines and the Greeks, in length more than a million 
paces; then Saxony, which is a considerable part of Ger- 
many, as long and twice as broad, it seems, as the por- 
tion of this country inhabited by the Franks ; then the two 
Pannonias ; Dacia, situated on the other bank of the Danube ; 
then Istria, Liburnia, and Dalmatia, with the exception of 
the coast cities which it pleased him to leave to the Em- 
peror, because of the friendship and the alliance by which 
they were united. Finally, all the barbarous and savage 
nations situated between the Rhine and the Vistula, the 
ocean and the Danube, much alike in language, different in 
manners, and in their method of existence, all of whom he 
overcame and rendered tributary." 



V 

THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE WESTERN 
EMPIRE 

In order to present a general outline of the wars of 
Charles, we have been compelled more than once to pass 
beyond the crucial and culminating event of his career, his 
coronation as Emperor at Rome in the year 800, thirty- 
two years after he had become King of the Franks. All 



CHARLES THE GREAT 159 

of his conquests are closely related with this elevation to 
a dignity revered for its venerable traditions, and yet the 
conquests alone were not in themselves sufficient to secure 
such an elevation. The acquisition of the imperial title was 
the result of a revolution, a change of policy, due as much to 
the intangible forces that move society as to the concrete de- 
tails of the career of the Conqueror. Master of Italy as 
he was after the downfall of Lombard powers, this ter- 
ritorial control simply gave Charles the position once held 
by another great German prince, Theodoric the Ostrogoth. 
But Theodoric was not an orthodox churchman as Charles 
was. It was, therefore, the combination of the orthodox 
religion, which Charles inherited as the successor of the first 
Prankish kings, and his sway over the Italian peninsula 
which prepared the way for the great event of Christmas 
Day, 800, when he took his place in the line of rulers 
marked by the names of Augustus, Constantine, and 
Justinian. 

Although close relations subsisted between the Papal terri- 
tories in Italy and the Prankish overlord across the Alps, 
there was, nevertheless, in Rome a considerable degree of 
autonomy. Charles had no thought of exercising the rights 
of a sovereign on the basis of the title of Patrician, which 
he had inherited from his father, and on which he had 
acted when it came to a question of putting an end finally 
to Lombard autonomy. But it was only at such crises that 
the need of intervention was felt, and, as we have seen 
in the case of Pope Stephen, it was the policy of the Holy 
See to make use of the Prankish King when questions in- 
volving the dignity of the Pope could be settled in no other 
way. This policy was maintained by Stephen's succes- 
sors, but it was not easy to induce Charles to undertake 
to handle thorny problems which involved the position of 
the Pope in his own city. There was no Prankish occupa- 
tion of Rome, foreshadowing the condition of affairs there 
when another Emperor of the Pranks protected the Pope 
from being overthrown by his unwilling subjects through 
the use of French bayonets. Rome, like other Italian cities, 



i6o THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

was often in a state of turbulence owing to factional di- 
visions among its citizens. There was already a beginning 
of that rivalry among Roman families to secure the Papal 
throne to one of its members that so often brought degra- 
dation to the Papacy during the course of the Middle Ages. 
Upon the death of Pope Hadrian in 795, after a long pon- 
tificate of twenty-three years, Leo HI became his succes- 
sor, but it seems that the succession was not altogether 
satisfactory to the kinsmen of the dead Pope, for they 
soon proceeded to extreme measures against his successor, 
seizing his person and trying to blind him. Leo, completely 
terrorized, seems to have lacked supporters in Rome to 
defend him, and he sought refuge with the great King at 
his camp near Paderborn, in Saxony, which was being used 
as a center for the operations against the recalcitrant Saxon 
tribes. The matter in dispute between the Pope and his 
enemies at home turned out to be a complicated one. 
Charles, in his capacity as Patrician, listened to the charges 
and countercharges brought by one side against the other. 
It was evident that justice could not be done at such long 
range, and, therefore, the King, after sending Leo home 
under the protection of Prankish ambassadors, moved 
slowly down into Italy in the year 800. 

Charles showed no haste to take up the obligation of 
settling the differences between the Pope and his discon- 
tented subjects. An expedition into Italy was always costly 
and troublesome. The situation, too, on the Eastern fron- 
tier needed his attention, because of the death of Count 
Ceroid and of Erich of Friuli, on whom he depended for 
warding off the attacks of the Avars and the Slavs. There 
were matters also in the Western part of his dominions 
which required his personal supervision. His lieutenants 
had just won victories over the Bretons and in the Spanish 
peninsula. New schemes of expansion had to be worked out, 
and provision made for protecting the sea coast. Besides, 
he was interested in securing for Eastern Christians dwell- 
ing in the dominions of the Saracens, advantages which 
they were unable to attain through the intervention of the 



CHARLES THE GREAT i6i 

rulers at Constantinople. A way had been opened by the 
arrival at his court of a monk from Jerusalem, with presents 
from the Patriarch and relics from the Holy Places. There 
are hints also of his receiving representatives from the 
Byzantine province of Sicily, and of direct suggestions from 
influential quarters in the East, where the rule of a woman, 
the Empress Irene, was resented, that the great Prankish 
King should assume the imperial title. He turned his steps 
towards Rome only when he had made himself familiar with 
the special needs of the situation brought about by Leo's 
policy. Many of his intimate advisers, Alcuin, Engelbert, 
Am of Salzburg, and Paulinus of Aquileia, had evidently 
discarded for some time all thought of the possibility of the 
Prankish ruler assuming the honors and rights which the 
imperial position, to the minds of that age, could alone be- 
stow. Now everything was changed; the Empire was the 
one political idea which was common to the German and to 
the Italian, and it was kept alive by the influence of church- 
men, to whom the existence of the Empire was the neces- 
sary complement to a Catholic Church. Charles was al- 
ready acting with a recognized power fully equivalent to 
that of an emperor. His rule was not local like that of 
other barbarian kings ; the title was needed to complete the 
political evolution, just as really as it was necessary for 
his father. Pippin, to give up the role of Mayor of the 
Palace and become " de jure " King of the Franks. This 
point was made perfectly clear when the general assembly 
of Charles' dominions was held at Mainz in August, 800, 
and the Italian expedition was announced. 

In Ravenna a stay of eight days was made by the in- 
vading army, and a detachment was sent off to pacify the 
Lombard Duchy of Benevento. Not far from Rome the 
King was greeted by the Pope, who then returned to Rome 
to prepare for the official reception of the ruler, which took 
place, on November 24th, with the customary ceremonies 
appropriate to the patrician rank of the visitor. Eight days 
afterwards, Charles having previously visited the Basilica 
of St. Peter's, explained pubHcly and officially the purpose 



i62 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

of his coming to the city, viz. : to investigate the charges 
against the Pope. 

This was an informal and personal process, for, accord- 
ing to the ecclesiastical canons, no one could officially judge 
a cause in which the Pope was concerned. But Charles' 
conception of his duties as Patrician meant no mere per- 
functory examination. For three weeks there was a public 
hearing, like an extra-judicial examination before a referee, 
of the rumors and charges against Leo's conduct, a chance 
being given to each side to ventilate its grievances. It is 
significant that the Prankish King was won over to the 
view of his leading ecclesiastics, including Alcuin, that the 
charges against Leo were without foundation, and were 
only the product of personal enmity. 

The difficulty was to give the decision such a form that, 
by avoiding a judicial character, it would not infringe 
upon the Papal prerogative, according to which the Bishop 
of Rome was not responsible to any earthly tribunal. The 
bishops themselves explicitly adopted this position by refus- 
ing to pass sentence on the head of the Church. After 
this principle had been accepted, the Pope could declare 
himself free from guilt. In so doing he was following a 
precedent set by his predecessors in like circumstances, Mar- 
cellinus, Symmachus, and Pelagius I. 

So he proceeded on December 23d to exculpate him- 
self by formally declaring his innocence before a great 
assembly of secular and ecclesiastical dignitaries, expressly 
mentioning that the proceeding was voluntary and not re- 
quired by the canons of the Church. In this way the im- 
mediate cause of the expedition of the Franks was disposed 
of, but Charles remained in Rome in order to provide for 
things needful in the administration of his Italian dominions. 

On Christmas Day a multitude had gathered together to 
celebrate the festival. As the King rose from prayer at the 
Confession of St. Peter the Pope placed the imperial dia- 
dem upon his head. The congregation, acting under one 
inspiration, joined spontaneously in the acclamation, used 
in former days in Rome, and still customary at the time at 



CHARLES THE GREAT 163 

Constantinople, — " Life and Victory to Charles the Pius 
Augustus, crowned by God, the great and peace-bringing 
Emperor." 

Three times the formula was repeated. After this proc- 
lamation the Pope reverenced the new Emperor, genuflect- 
ing, as was the Roman custom, and probably this act of 
homage was repeated by all who were present. On the 
same day the Emperor's son, Karl, was anointed King 
by the Pope, just as his brothers, Pippin and Louis, had 
been elevated to the royal dignity twenty years before. A 
few days later the Emperor, sitting as supreme judge, con- 
demned to death the Pope's accusers, sentences which, at 
Leo's request, were mitigated to deportation. 

The biographer of Charles represents the ceremony of 
the coronation as a surprise, prepared by the Pope with- 
out consulting Charles, and so done not only without his 
will, but contrary to his desire. The Emperor, indeed, is 
reported to have said that, if he had known of the Pope's 
intention, he would not have visited the Basilica. These 
words may be interpreted as an expression of the usual 
formula of humility, frequent in ecclesiastical elections on 
the part of the successful candidate, or else they may mean 
that the Emperor objected to the way in which the dignity 
was bestowed. It will be noted that the act of placing the 
crown on his head preceded the acclamation of the people's 
choice. The details of the ceremonial were copied from the 
one used at Constantinople, where it had long been the 
custom for the Emperor to be crowned by the Patriarch. 
But, according to the political theory of the time, the im- 
perial dignity was not conferred by the receiving of the dia- 
dem, but by the election of the Roman people and army, and 
by the formal act of homage done at the time. The Pope, 
by his presence, added more solemnity to the occasion, but 
his intervention added nothing in the way of legal validity 
to it. 

Charles' own point of view is shown plainly enough in 
the fact that in 813 he proclaimed his son Louis Emperor 
and crowned him with his own hands. As he acted here 



i64 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

without requesting the cooperation of the Pope, a purely 
lay method of conferring the imperial dignity may have 
appealed better to his convictions than that followed in his 
own case. But there could have been no improvised pro- 
cedure in the ceremony at St. Peter's. Charles could not 
have been made Emperor against his will, nor is it possible 
to harmonize the details of the ceremony with such an 
explanation. How could the coronation have been an im- 
pulsive act on the Pope's part, taken without the Emperor's 
knowledge, when the diadem was in readiness, and the great 
congregation were prepared to repeat without confusion the 
words of acclamation? Such preparations must have had 
the consent of the Prankish ruler, for it is most unlikely 
that he should not have known of them. His own objec- 
tions, therefore, were probably due to certain features of 
the ceremony actually carried out, those, namely, by which 
the Pope took the initiative. A stricter following of an- 
cient precedent, at a time when no cerembnial change should 
have been introduced by which the legitimacy of the suc- 
cession could be questioned, would have approved itself to 
Charles. An emperor had to be provided for the West, 
and scrupulosity in following precedents was desirable, es- 
pecially in view of the doubt as to whether the Empress 
Irene could, as a woman, legally hold supreme power at 
Constantinople. 

It must be remembered that there had been several at- 
tempts made in the seventh and eighth centuries to revive 
the connection between Rome and the imperial dignity. 
But they had failed because there was no considerable and 
acknowledged political force behind them. Now, under the 
extensive rule of the Prankish King, the elements required 
to give an actual validity to the imperial claim were pres- 
ent in an overwhelming degree. Charles was in control of 
most of the territory once belonging to the empire in West- 
ern Europe, and along the Eastern and Southeastern fron- 
tiers he had succeeded in extending its limits — a task un- 
paralleled by the achievements in these same regions of 
the greatest of the Roman Emperors. The Teutonic peo- 



CHARLES THE GREAT 165 

pies, who centuries before had made their first appearance 
as " fcederati," in the service of the Empire, were now com- 
ponent parts of it, and had definitely entered the sphere 
of Roman civilization. What Athaulf had deemed to be 
impossible, what neither Odoacer, Theodoric, nor the Lom- 
bard Kings had tried or dared to do, Charles had done, now 
that, advancing from the title of Patrician, which had been 
held often by the barbarian rulers, he claimed for the Ger- 
mans the full right to the imperial name. 

In its ecclesiastical relations the revived Empire differed 
from the old. The Pope had become a factor in the political 
evolution of the West in a way unknown to the age of 
Athaulf, Theodoric, or Odoacer. Gregory the Great had 
turned to the East as a subject of the Roman Empire, to 
ask aid of his legitimate Emperor; the bishops of Rome, in 
the eighth century, as equals, turned to the Franks, and 
of this alliance the ceremony of Christmas Day, 800, was 
the logical sequence. 

For the Germanic peoples the coronation of Charles did 
not mean absorption into a unified system of absolutism, 
such as prevailed in the East ; but it did mean that the pre- 
dominant factor in their future was to be their relation in 
the logical sense to the Italian peninsula, and it is just 
this relationship in its various phases which was worked 
out in the Middle Ages, and so it may justly be called the 
distinguishing mark of the medieval period. 

Charles' assumption of the imperial title did not imply 
that he ceased to regard himself as the head of a Germanic 
people, nor was there manifest on his part any intention 
to shift the existing Teutonic basis of his rule towards a 
Latin center. For several months after the coronation cere- 
mony he remained in Italy, but the Alps were recrossed in 
the summer of 801, and during the rest of his life he never 
again set foot on Italian soil. 

With the Eastern Empire, which might have been stirred 
to active hostility by the introduction of a rival claimant 
to the imperial throne, relations continued to be good. Em- 
bassies passed from one court to another, and it is re- 



i66 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

ported by a Greek chronicler that Charles transmitted offi- 
cially to the Empress Irene a proposal that the two em- 
pires should be united by their marriage. In 803 the 
Empress Irene died, after her deposition had been brought 
about by a palace revolution by which Nicephorus, the 
Grand Treasurer, was placed on the throne. In 806, for a 
short time, these peaceful relations were broken by a con- 
tention over the possession of Venice, whose commercial 
importance was beginning to be recognized. A Byzantine 
fleet appeared off the lagunes, but was unable to prevent 
the coveted islands from being taken by Pippin, Charles' 
representative in Italy, who brought the contest to a close 
in 810 by a combined attack on sea and land. In 812, 
as a compensation for acknowledging Charles as Roman 
Emperor, the Adriatic territories, Venetia, Istria, Liburnia, 
and Dalmatia, were restored to Byzantine rule. 



VI 

CLOSING YEARS 

The period of conquests and warlike expeditions was al- 
most over. One hears of the ravages of Scandinavian 
pirates, and of marauding incursions by Moorish corsairs 
along the extended coast line of the Empire. They seem 
to have remained unpunished, for Charles gave little atten- 
tion to the development of a navy. In the years from 808 
to 810 there were operations on a large scale against a 
threatened Danish invasion of the Northeastern frontier of 
the Empire. Some actions of an indecisive character were 
fought, and the preparation of a fleet sufficient to meet the 
Danish flotilla of two hundred ships was taken in hand. 
The prospect, however, of more serious complications was 
dissolved by a domestic revolution in Denmark, and for the 
rest of the Emperor's life peace prevailed between him- 
self and the Danes. As time went on, the actual direction 
of military operations was left to the Emperor's two elder 



CHARLES THE GREAT 167 

sons, Charles and Pippin, who seem, on the whole, to have 
harmoniously worked together in carrying out their father's 
plans. 

The enforced inactivity of the Emperor brought forward 
the need of providing for the future administration of his 
domains. His eldest son, another Pippin, of illegitimate 
birth, was not on the Hst of those from whom the future 
rulers were to be selected. Years before, in 792, he had 
been discovered in a plot to dethrone his father, and had 
been sent to a monastery. 

There were now but three heirs to the empire, Louis, 
in Aquitaine; a younger Pippin, in Italy, and Charles, in 
Germany, all intrusted with important charges by their 
father. In 806 a formal document was drawn up regulat- 
ing the succession. Charles received the countries from 
whence the Franks had originated, Austrasia along with 
Neustria, and the East Prankish provinces; the younger 
brothers were to exercise independent power over the coun- 
tries they already were administering. Besides this. Pippin 
was to take Bavaria, and Louis the Provencal districts and 
the largest parts of Burgundy. Charles directed that his 
sons should help one another against their enemies, inter- 
nal and external ; he also arranged the roads by which Italy 
should be approached in case of need, and provisions were 
made at the same time for securing independence in the 
fractions of the Empire. Among these dispositions, per- 
haps the most significant were that no " beneficium," or as- 
signment of lands, should be made in any of the two di- 
visions, save to individuals who were residents there, and 
that no man expatriated for his crimes should be received 
by the ruler of another territory. The inner unity of the 
three realms and their independence from one another was 
the master idea of this whole testamentary arrangement. 
These provisions were made by the Emperor after he had 
advised with his nobles. They seem to have harmonized 
with his own sense of justice, and, strangely enough, the 
ideals of family life predominated in cases where, beyond 
all other considerations, political acumen should have pre- 



i68 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

vailed. The Emperor relied, so far as the unity of the 
Empire was concerned, on the loyalty of his sons to his 
own counsels and to one another. 

The plan was soon frustrated by death, for within five 
years of the date of his division, Pippin and Charles had 
both died. The Emperor was old, and the question of suc- 
cession was a more pressing one than ever. It was being 
discussed with equal interest by friends and foes alike. 
It must have been also a matter of the profoundest mo- 
ment to the creator of the Empire, to make such disposi- 
tions as would, at least from his own point of view, secure 
its permanence. 

At the end of the summer of 813, Charles, following the 
precedent of his father and grandfather, drew about him 
the most important of his officials, and prepared, with 
their approval, to provide finally for the succession. The 
disposition was comparatively simple, as only one of the 
three sons, Louis, who had enjoyed the privilege of Papal 
recognition, was still aHve. He had succeeded, besides, in 
giving a practical demonstration of his capacity by his suc- 
cessful administration of Aquitaine. Therefore, he seemed 
entitled to the largest share of his father's dominions, the 
only difficulty being to determine the claims of Bernard, 
the legitimate heir of Pippin. It was, therefore, settled 
that he should receive Italy, and he was forthwith rec- 
ognized as its King. 

Only one question was now in doubt as to what extent 
the prerogatives of the imperial dignity should be passed 
over to the principal heir. This, as it was the creation of 
the Emperor, seemed to be under his personal control, so 
he accordingly prepared to make Louis co-Emperor. 

The determination of the Emperor to advance his son 
to the imperial dignity, making him co-ruler with himself, 
appeared to have been unanticipated by the assembly. They 
applauded the design and greeted it as an illustration of 
divine direction. There was no longer any doubt that the 
central power would continue to exist. Louis was crowned 
with the diadem by the Emperor himself, and the act was 



CHARLES THE GREAT 169 

dissociated from the precedent which had been followed 
in Charles' own case, so eliminating all question of Papal 
consent. Rome was not consulted, and Louis was allowed 
to return home to his own kingdom of Aquitaine. There 
could no longer, however, be any question as to his ultimately 
becoming the sole supreme ruler in his father's stead. 

Charles may himself, as a political idealist, have believed 
that in this transmission he was guaranteeing the per- 
manence of the system he had built up. But even apart 
from the unfortunate weakness and incapacity of his suc- 
cessor, it is doubtful whether personal rule of this type 
could have been perpetuated even in the Eastern Empire, 
with its crystallized traditions, and where an imperial 
dynasty, with recognized prerogatives and absolutism, en- 
dured from age to age. Even in the East there were fre- 
quent breaks in the succession. 

The long reign was clearly drawing to a close. The 
Emperor's physical powers began to fail, and the malady, 
which proved a fatal one, appeared in alarming symptoms. 
The Emperor knew of his condition, and had disciplined 
himself with the common forms of devotion for the ap- 
proach of death. After a hunting expedition in the autumn 
of 813 he returned to Aix and soon after had an attack 
of fever. His ordinary remedies, dieting and the mineral 
waters of the city, failed to bring relief, and pleurisy 
set in. Charles died on the morning of the 28th of 
January, 814, after having received the communion from 
the hands of his arch-chaplain, Hildebold. His body, after 
embalmment, was enclosed in an ancient Roman sarcoph- 
agus, still existing in Aix, with ornaments in relief which 
depict the Rape of Proserpine. Above the entrance of the 
vault containing it was placed this inscription : " Here rests 
the body of Charles the Great, mighty and orthodox Em- 
peror, who enlarged nobly the realm of the Franks, and 
for forty-six years governed it with success. He died a 
septuagenarian, in the year of Our Lord 814, in the 7th 
indiction on the fifth day before the Kalends of February." 

People told how marvels had foreshadowed the Emperor's 



I70 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

dissolution, how for three days sun and moon were dark- 
ened, how the sky was filled by bright, unnatural flashes of 
light, how the roof of the Basilica at Aix was struck by a 
thunderbolt, and how the name of the Emperor, " Karolus 
Princeps," engraved on a golden crown, suspended in the 
nave of the building, faded from sight. 

Later on, it was reported that the body of Charles had 
not been placed in a coffin, but that his tomb contained the 
body of the great ruler sitting upright on his throne, ap- 
pearing just as he did in life, vested in the imperial robes, 
a diadem on his head, by his side a sword, his scepter in his 
hand, reposing with the book of the Gospels on his knees. 
Otto III was said to have entered the tomb and found the 
body so placed ; but this supposed verification of the legend 
rests on a mistranslation of the text of an early chronicle. 

Folklore soon amplified the career of the great ruler. In 
the medieval " Gesta," Charles appears as the brother of 
the Pope, the represser of disloyal vassals, a crusader and 
pilgrim to the Holy Land, a warrior of enormous stature, 
able with one stroke of his sword to cut in two an armed 
knight on his charger. In other legends he is presented as 
a famous wise man, the founder of the University of 
Paris. 

The Emperor in person did not resemble the glorified 
image of him handed down by legend. There was no beard 
extending to his waist, nor did he wear the magnificent 
imperial vestments, heavy with precious stones; nor are 
the other attributes of the imperial dignity seen in his con- 
ventional portraits authentic, such, for example, as the 
scepter, the globe surmounted by a cross, the baton termi- 
nating in a knob of incised silver. 

According to the most credible accounts, the Emperor 
was tall ; as Einhard puts it, " not more than seven times 
the length of his foot." His neck was short, and he was, 
to use the expressive but inelegant epithet of our ances- 
tors, "pot-bellied." His head was round, with large, ac- 
tive eyes, a lengthy nose, a large crop of hair, with a 
mustache, but no beard. His voice, we are told, seemed 



CHARLES THE GREAT 171 

rather weak for such a large frame. Ordinarily, he was 
dressed after the Frankish fashion, in a linen shirt and 
short tunic, to which in winter fur was added; his legs 
were encased in leather bands; a blue cloak and a sword 
of expensive workmanship completed his out-of-door ward- 
robe. On ceremonial occasions he wore a diadem, adorned 
with precious stones, and when he was in Rome he con- 
formed to local custom by wearing the chlamys, a long 
Roman tunic. 

Charles was four times married. After his repudiation 
of the daughter of Desiderius, his wives were Hildegarde, 
Fastrada, and Liutgarda. The offspring of these various 
marriages were three sons, Charles, Pippin, and Louis, the 
children of Hildegarde; and five daughters, Rothruda, 
Bertha, Giselda, Theodrada, and Hiltruda. The girls were 
carefully trained in the various arts of domestic economy, 
and we are told, too, that in addition to skill in preparing 
stuffs for wearing apparel, they showed great interest in 
collecting for purposes of self-adornment *' gold ornaments 
and many precious stones." These unusual maidens proved 
such valuable adjuncts to the household that their father 
refused to permit them to marry, with the result that three 
became abbesses, while two contracted irregular alliances. 
Rothruda secretly married Count Rovigo, and Bertha, the 
poet, Angilbert. 

Life at court was anything but austere; even the Em- 
peror himself could not be accused of being overscrupulous 
in his morals, for after the death of Liutgarda, in 800, he 
contracted several irregular alliances. Charles was fond of 
traveling; undoubtedly economic and political reasons may 
account for the number of royal residences. But his favorite 
seat was at Aix, which attracted him on account of its min- 
eral springs. Here, in a cluster of buildings, secular and 
ecclesiastical, of his own creation, he was able to gratify his 
own tastes in amusements, which were swimming and hunt- 
ing. He was fond of festivities, and liked to live sur- 
rounded by his large family, who helped him to enjoy the 
good cheer of his table and entered sympathetically into 



172 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

the natural atmosphere of a court which was without stiff 
convention, and which preserved in its naive unconstrained- 
ness the tastes of a great Teutonic tribal chieftain. But, 
while the wines, the abundant amount of solid food and 
numerous dishes of pastry, were well appreciated, there 
was serious conversation, and an opportunity was given to 
the " litterateurs " of the court to show their skill in verse 
or repartee. The Emperor himself reverenced learning, but 
his own education was anything but advanced, even for his 
own day. His intellectual interests were varied, theological 
speculation being especially attractive to him. He was fond 
of singing, and he spoke easily, clearly, and with an abun- 
dant diction. He knew Latin, and understood, too, a little 
Greek. When he was of adult age he studied rhetoric, logic, 
and astronomy. He liked to have the ancient historians read 
to him when he was at table, but his favorite book was 
St. Augustine's " City of God." Affable and easily ap- 
proached, his guests found him personally interested in 
their affairs ; he had a happy way of saying the right thing 
at the right time, but he was fully conscious that his posi- 
tion as Roman Emperor made him a successor of the 
Caesars, and he never forgot that the religious consecration 
of the Church placed him, in a mystic sense, in the sacred 
line of David and of Solomon. 



VII 

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE EMPIRE 

Though we speak of an empire founded by Charles the 
Great, the use of the word should not be allowed to lead us 
astray into comparisons or analogies based on merely ver- 
bal resemblances. Charles was not an emperor of the type 
known to the Roman Empire of the classic Christian period, 
nor as a ruler can he be compared with Russian Czars 
or Napoleon the First. Neither as king nor as emperor was 
Charles an absolute monarch. Both before and after the 



CHARLES THE GREAT 173 

assumption of the more exalted title, the association of 
personal rule with the leadership of the armed host of the 
Prankish nation was so close and intimate that the ruler 
was not to be separated from the source of his authority. 
The house of the Karlings could not claim the kind of sanc- 
tion given to the Merovingian princes, who were the heredi- 
tary rulers of the Franks. 

When the power of the tribal kingship was broken, the 
Carolingian house took first the leadership of the armed 
Frankish host, and then the title of King ; but they did so 
through, and with the consent of, the nation of the Franks. 
The Karlings were not true successors of the Merovingians. 
Their royal dignity had quite a different character ; it did not 
rest on birth and custom, or the traditional reverence which 
comes from ancient and long recognized rights of succession. 
The army of the Franks gave the directorship over their 
nation to the father and grandfather of Charles, but the 
source of this authority remained with and through the 
army. The leader of the Franks, whether called king or 
emperor, ruled his own people, and the territory he gained, 
by the consent of the army of the Franks. Charles Martel 
divided his territories at his death, but he asked the army's 
consent, and when Pippin was crowned by the Pope, the 
act was again ratified by the army. 

In the early years of Charles' own reign, it was the 
wish of the Franks that they should be guided by one 
ruler, not by two, and in all but one of the conquests of 
Charles, the principle that some portion at least of the an- 
nexed nation should ask him to be their overlord was ac- 
cepted. Even in the case of the Saxons, where the resist- 
ance to the Franks was universal and unanimous, the pur- 
pose of Charles was not a personal conquest of a people 
to be governed afterwards as dependents under an absolute 
ruler. Rather, as Einhard expresses it, "that united with 
the Franks they might along with them be made one peo- 
ple." This declaration in itself explains the character of 
the empire founded by Charles. The closest analogy to it 
is to be found in the Ostrogothic kingdom of Theodoric; 



174 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

the difference being that Theodoric sought for allies among 
the independent tribal Germanic kingdoms, while the aim 
of Charles meant absorption of these kingdoms under the 
one ruling race of the Franks. 

This principle is perfectly illustrated in the treatment of 
the Saxons after their conquest ; the moment they accepted 
the rule of the Franks they were admitted on an equality 
with the Franks into the regular meetings of the armed host 
of the Frankish nation, and along with their conquerors 
took part in its legislative work. These primitive popular 
assemblies had originated as the Merovingian dynasty was 
drawing to its close, when it was realized that the people 
must provide for their own concerns because of the failure 
of the ruling house to govern efficiently or successfully. 
They were held generally in May at a royal villa or palace 
in the Rhine Valley, Aix, Worms, or Mainz. In theory 
every Frank was supposed to be present. Actually, only the 
great lords and the high ecclesiastics were at hand, and their 
followers stood for the people. 

Only the most important personages were admitted to 
the deliberations. The laymen present were separated from 
the clergy, but sometimes the two orders sat together and 
went over in detail the measures prepared for them before- 
hand. Sometimes this process lasted several days. These 
informal sessions were visited by the Emperor, who passed 
among those present, talking familiarly to them, and ask- 
ing questions as to the happenings and needs of the neigh- 
borhoods from whence they came. Outside the building 
were gathered a crowd of followers and retainers. 

The Emperor, after taking the advice of his chief sub- 
jects, made his decisions, and the result was communicated 
to the people for their consent. This last act had become 
apparently a simple matter of form. The question sub- 
mitted to the assembly had been prepared long in advance 
either by the immediate council at the palace, or by the 
autumn assembly, a body organized by Charles himself, 
which, when the matter was urgent, decided on questions of 
peace and war. 



CHARLES THE GREAT 175 

While nothing is known of the character of the dehbera- 
tions of this smaller body, it is clear that measures, already 
settled by them, were brought before the May assembly, 
and so presented that the decisions taken earher could be 
guessed. There were various names given to this larger 
body or general assembly, according to the character of the 
business that came before it, — conventus, placitum, synodus, 
— whether judicial, legislative, or ecclesiastic. It was a 
council of war and an executive cabinet ; it was also a court 
of highest instance, a ministry of foreign affairs and of 
public worship. 

At the assembly the members, great and small, made 
their fiscal contributions to the prince. The same vague- 
ness, indicative of a crude and undeveloped stage of gov- 
ernment, is seen in the legislative acts of the assembly, 
which appeared in the shape of what are technically called 
" capitularies." Analyzing them from the modern point 
of view, Guizot reckoned that there were of criminal or 
civil legislation, 273 items ; of moral and religious, 172, and 
that of these, one hundred dealt with matters of canon law. 
The only distinction made by Charles himself in the capitu- 
laries was that some were new measures and were to be 
added to legislation already accepted, while others were to 
be used for the guidance of the higher imperial officials. The 
first class was valid only for the duration of the reign 
of the sovereign under whom they were passed. The last, 
for a year, but the additions to laws already existing had 
no time limitation. 

These capitularies were not intended to supersede na- 
tional or tribal custom and law. Each man was judged 
according to the laws of his own people, and in 802 the 
Emperor directed that the unwritten laws of the peoples 
under his rule should be collected. The capitularies were, 
therefore, supplemental and corrective to the national codes. 
For example, one of them, which, by the way, met such 
strong opposition that the Emperor was obliged to yield 
the point, was intended to remove the abuse of private 
vengeance. 



176 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

Local administration was in the hands of the counts, and, 
as in the Merovingian period, the administrative unit was 
the county. Altogether throughout the whole Empire, 
there were three hundred counts; the districts which they 
administered varied in size, the authority exercised by them 
being judicial, military, and financial. Along with the 
count and closely associated with him is the bishop. As 
there was in the capitularies so much which concerned the 
sphere of the Church, the cooperation, in their official pub- 
lication, of the bishop with the count was not unnatural. 
Moreover, in the Empire, in addition to purely religious 
duties, the bishop had the function of investigating certain 
categories of crime, homicides, incest, etc., and in a general 
way, he acted as adviser of the count. 

Among the count's duties was that of defending the 
Church and, in trials for ecclesiastical offenses, he had to 
be present informally as assessor. The cooperation of the 
civil and ecclesiastical authorities strongly appealed to the 
Emperor, with his ideals of a Christian commonwealth ; but 
in experience, the association of the bishop and the count, 
as local administrators, worked far from smoothly. So a 
capitulary of 8oi mentions the Emperor's purpose to find 
out the reasons why bishops and abbots, on the one hand, 
and counts, on the other, are not able to assist one another. 

The problem of defining the limits of the secular and re- 
ligious spheres gave rise to constant difficulties, and the 
situation was further aggravated by the fact that in many 
cases the counts seemed inefficient and venal. They had 
to be warned not to hang offenders without trial, to be 
sober when they were sitting in judgment, not to receive 
presents, not to oppress freemen, not to usurp the right 
which belonged to the state, not to take the goods of the poor. 
Once a year the counts were summoned to the royal palace, 
and they were required to remain there long enough to 
lay before the Emperor a detailed record of their ad- 
ministration. 

A special power of review over the counts was given to 
the "missi," — a class of officials existing under the Mero- 



CHARLES THE GREAT 177 

vingian Kings, but with power extended and regularized by- 
Charles, especially after 802. The whole Empire was di- 
vided into " missatica " — the divisions under a " missus," 
which included several counties. For example. Western 
France made three of these divisions with centers at Paris, 
Rouen, and Orleans. The ^' missi," who were generally a 
count and a cleric, an abbot or bishop, made a general 
visitation of their district for a period lasting over a year, 
according to a fixed itinerary. They were expected to see 
that the royal authority was respected, by exacting a de- 
tailed oath of fidelity from all the inhabitants, and to take 
care that no one occupied the royal domain of forest or 
appropriated the royal revenue. They looked after the 
application of the directions contained in the capitularies, 
noted the general condition of law and order, saw that 
justice was done, and the rules of military service strictly 
carried out. 

Much stress was laid on their judicial functions; when 
they arrived in a town they set up their court in the public 
place; the local bishop and count had to be in attendance, 
while the " missi " heard complaints and altered whatever 
judgments of the local officers seemed contrary to right 
and equity. 

The " missi," as we have seen, were selected from the 
higher clergy and from the great landlords. Their persons 
were held to be inviolate and sacred ; all the lower officials 
of the Empire were ordered to receive them with respect 
and give them ready help, and to attack them was a capital 
offense. 

Theodulf, bishop of Orleans, one of the clergy perform- 
ing the functions of a *' missus," has left us an account 
of an official journey made by him to the South of France. 
He took boat on the Rhone with his companion, Leidrade, 
the archbishop of Lyons, and their work of inspection began 
at Avignon. They held their assizes at Nimes, Maguelonne, 
Cette, Agde, Beziers, Narbonne, Carcassone, le Razes, Aries, 
Marseilles, Aix, Cavaillon. The clergy and people hastened 
to take advantage of their presence, but Theodulf tells us 



178 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

they did so with no worthy motive, for they were prepared 
to buy their favor, each according to his means. The rich 
offered good coin, precious stones, valuable stuffs, and ori- 
ental carpets, arms, horses, ancient vases " of pure metal 
unbelievably heavy, on which a skilful graver had repre- 
sented the fight of Hercules with the giant Cacus." The 
poorer citizens were ready to give red and white skins of 
Cordova, excellent fabrics of linen or wool, chests, and 
wax. 

" Such was the engine of war with which they hoped 
to make a breach in the wall of my soul," the bishop says, 
intimating that they had learned the way by past experi- 
ence. The custom of giving presents to officials was so 
firmly established that even the reforming bishop hesitated 
to interfere with it. Accordingly, in order not to offend 
the suitors, he felt constrained to accept articles of small 
value, such as eggs, bread, wine, tender chickens, and 
birds, " whose body is small but good to eat." 

Little change was made in the ordinary forms of the 
Prankish judicial system by Charles; the count still con- 
tinued to hold his tribunal as in Merovingian times, the 
freedmen of the county were expected to b*e present as as- 
sessors, but owing to the difficulty of securing an intelli- 
gent tribunal in this haphazard way, Charles instituted a 
chosen class of assessors called " scabini," who were to 
be taken from the class of " well-born, prudent, and God- 
fearing men." This body was both the judge and jury, 
as the count only acted as their presiding officer and pro- 
nounced the sentence formulated by them. From the ver- 
dict of this tribunal there was an appeal either to the King 
or to the judgment of God, the favorite form of which at 
this time was the test by the cross. In this test, the defend- 
ant, holding his arms in the form of a cross, had to stand 
upright without changing his position, while the clergy re- 
cited certain prayers. If any movement was made, it was 
taken as a sign of guilt. 

In the palace the King himself often acted in the capacity 
of judge in the first instance, and he also heard appeals 



CHARLES THE GREAT 179 

either in person or by proxy through the count of the palace. 
Considerable care was taken that the right of appeal should 
not be used indiscriminately. The palace officials had im- 
portant governmental as well as personal functions; their 
general collective title was the " palatins." There was no 
Mayor of the Palace, the first place being held by the count, 
who, as has just been noted, had judicial duties. The ad- 
ministration of the palace was also in his hands. The re- 
ligious services of the household were directed by the arch- 
chaplain ; then came the chamberlains, treasurers, seneschals, 
butlers, constables, and the master of domestic functions. 
Counts of the palace are found in the command of armies ; 
one of them being killed by the side of Roland at Ronces- 
valles, another in Saxony. Seneschals had charge of the 
kitchens, but they are also mentioned as valiant warriors. 
Butlers were also diplomatists, and we find a constable fight- 
ing the Slavs on the Elbe. 

A real effort at division of labor is to be found solely 
in what might be called, with some elasticity of phrase, the 
Record Office, where notaries prepared the King's letters, 
charters, and acts of immunity. At their head was an ec- 
clesiastic, the protonotary, or chancellor. He was a de- 
pendent of the arch-chaplain, and did not have charge of 
the seal, yet his position was especially confidential, as he 
kept the archives. 

The King consulted the court officials, who, according 
to his pleasure, were gathered about him in an informal 
way whenever he saw fit to call them. But, besides this, we 
are told that Charles had always with him three of his coun- 
selors, chosen among the wisest and most eminent about 
him; without their advice he did nothing. To the royal 
household there were regularly attached a number of young 
men, the " discipuli," sent there to be educated, and the 
*' comites," or personal retainers of the King, a continua- 
tion of a custom mentioned by Tacitus. 



i8o THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

VIII 

CAROLINGIAN CULTURE 

The Emperor's solicitude in promoting learning has 
caused his reign to be spoken of as the Carolingian Renais- 
sance. But Charles' intellectual interests were not those 
of a fifteenth century humanist. He desired the revival 
of letters because he saw in learning a means by which the 
Church, which, to his mind, was the organization of the 
state Christianized, might overcome pagan survivals, and 
take the lead in civilizing the various nationalities in his 
realm. The clergy and the monks were ignorant — they 
could neither preach nor teach. The Emperor planned a 
kind of Christian Athens, a new community of scholars, in 
which learning was to be the handmaid of religion. After 
he had assumed the title of Emperor, he recalled how closely 
the glory of letters was associated with the renown of the 
Roman world, and he desired his own reign to be signalized 
by the same elements of culture. 

The point of view of this intellectual revival is indi- 
cated in the following letter addressed by Charles to Bau- 
gulf. Abbot of Fulda. '' Know," he says, *' that in recent 
years, since many monasteries were in the habit of writ- 
ing us to let us know that their members were offering 
prayers for us, we noticed that in most of these writings 
the sentiments were good, and the composition bad. For 
what a pious devotion within was faithfully inspiring, an 
untrained tongue was incapable of explaining outwardly be- 
cause of the inadequacy of scholarship. So we commenced 
to fear that, as the knowledge of style was weak, the under- 
standing of the Holy Scriptures was less than it should be ; 
we all know that if verbal errors are dangerous, mistakes 
in sense are much worse. For this reason we exhort you 
not only not to neglect the study of letters, but to cultivate 
them with a humility agreeable to God, in order that you 
may the more easily or the more justly fathom the mysteries 



CHARLES THE GREAT i8i 

of the divine writings. As there are in the sacred books 
figures, tropes, and other Hke things, there is no doubt 
that in reading them each one attains to the spiritual sense 
of them the more quickly, in proportion as he has received 
before a complete literary training. . . . Do not forget tO' 
send copies of this letter to all of those with you who are 
bishops, and to all the monasteries, if you wish to enjoy our 
favors." 

It was not enough to rely on those already set in author- 
ity — they had to be placed under supervision themselves. 
Charles saw, as he expressed it, that he had to find men who 
had the will and the ability to learn, and the desire to 
teach others. Such leaders were selected from all nation- 
alities, Anglo-Saxons, Irishmen, Scots, Lombards, Goths, 
Bavarians. The first to be attracted by the King's induce- 
ments of good pay and an honorable position were the 
grammarians, Peter of Pisa, and Paulinus, and Paul the 
Deacon, the poet and historian. But in influence all these 
were second to Alcuin, a native of England. Born in 735, 
he entered the School of York when Egbert, one of the 
disciples of Bede, was archbishop. Alcuin under his mas- 
ter Albert acquired the kind of encyclopedic knowledge that 
is handed down to us in the volumes of Isidore and Bede, 
the chief stress being laid on the Holy Scriptures, helped 
out by jejune rhetorical exercises, and scraps of physical 
science. He had read Latin Hterature, knew Greek, and was 
familiar with the great writers of Christian antiquity. The 
King was glad to secure such a prize, and the two became 
close friends. Alcuin acted as confidential adviser to the 
King, and was one of those who arranged for the corona- 
tion in 800. 

There is a considerable body of literary work from Al- 
cuin's pen, but nothing he wrote shows any originality. He 
was little more than a faithful transmitter of the learn- 
ing he received. He set the seal on the traditional division 
of knowledge in its seven stages, or, as it was technically 
known, the seven arts: grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, arith- 
metic, geometry, music, and astronomy. His literary in- 



i82 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

terests may be judged from the following dialogue : " What 
is writing ? " said Pippin, one of the Emperor's sons. " The 
guardian of history," replied Alcuin. *' What is speech ? " 
" The treason of thought." " What engenders speech ? " 
" The tongue." " What is the tongue ? " " The flail of the 
air." "What is the air?" " The guardian of life." ''What 
is life? " " The joy of the happy, the pain of the wretched, 
the expectation of death." "What is man?" ''The slave 
of death, the guest of a place, a passing traveler." 

These preciosities give one a depressing idea of Alcuin's 
ability. Yet it must be remembered that they were mar- 
vels to the obtuse and crudely trained minds of men whose 
chief occupation was war and the chase, and as an intel- 
lectual stimulus they were just as effective as are to-day 
the eagerly scanned columns of modern journalism. 

Alcuin was made royal director of studies ; he was school- 
master of the palace, and from this circle of the King's 
friends originated the Palatine Academy, the members of 
which, in order to mark their efforts at imitating classic 
culture, adopted fancifully the names of ancient worthies. 
So Charles was called David, Alcuin was called Horatius 
Flaccus, and Angilbert, Homer. In order to extend their 
influence Charles promoted several of the members of the 
Academy to important positions in the Church, making 
them bishops or abbots. 

The royal plans for promoting learning are indicated in 
a capitulary of March 23, 789. " Let," he says, " the min- 
isters of God draw about them not only young people of 
servile condition, but the sons of freemen. Let there be 
reading schools for the children. Let the psalms, musical 
notation, singing, arithmetic, and grammar be taught in 
all the monasteries and all the bishoprics." These direc- 
tions led to the creation of numerous monastic and episcopal 
schools, all ordered " according to the customs of the pal- 
ace." Alcuin, in 796, withdrew to Tours, becoming the 
abbot of St. Martin's there, and planned to found a rep- 
lica of the Saxon school at York, where he had himself 
been trained. 



CHARLES THE GREAT 183 

The success of the new educational policy owed much to 
Theodulph, a Spaniard of Gothic birth, who, in becoming 
bishop of Orleans about 798, proceeded to see that his 
clergy were industrious in reading and preaching. Schools 
were opened in town and country where children were edu- 
cated without payment, though the parents were expected, 
if they were able, to make some return proportionate to 
their means. From a document written by another Caro- 
lingian bishop, it appears that parents were urged to send 
their children and allow them to remain at school until 
they were really instructed. In such provisions, it is pos- 
sible to find a sketch for primary instruction, though it is 
not known how successfully or how widely it was de- 
veloped. 

Supplementing these lower schools were others of a 
higher grade founded in the more populous centers. In the 
episcopal and monastic schools there were accessible col- 
lections of books. Charles himself had a library attached 
to the palace. The size of some of these collections may 
be estimated from the fact that one monastery, St. Riquier 
owned two hundred and fifty-six manuscripts. We know, 
too, that abbots were accustomed in their election to give 
presents of books to their monasteries. In the lists of these 
donations, which have been preserved, are to be found 
chiefly Christian writers, St. Augustine being an especial 
favorite; some of the poets of antiquity also find a place, 
generally Virgil. The atmosphere of this revival- of letters 
was predominantly Christian. There are extant, for ex- 
ample, numerous commentaries on the Gospels of this age, 
but they are of slight value, being mere transcriptions of 
previous authorities. 

More successful was the new regime in the mechanical 
work of preparing better texts. One of the capitularies 
directs special care to be given in selecting copyists equal 
to their task. Both Alcuin and Theodulph were engaged 
in preparing a revised version of the Latin Bible, the lat- 
ter scholar, with more discretion, using as his model the 
text prepared by the famous prime minister of Theodoric, 



i84 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

Cassiodorus, after he had returned to his monastery in 
Calabria. 

The historical literature of the period also shows the in- 
fluence of this religious " Renaissance." Hagiographical 
works were popular, but in general critical ability was want- 
ing in them. But some advance was made, for although 
the traditional lines of narrative are preserved, more bio- 
graphical details are given and the style is improved. This 
type of Carolingian literature can best be studied in Eigil's 
life of Sturm, in the biographies of Gregory of Utrecht, by 
Liudger, and in Alcuin's *' Life of Willibrord." Some of 
the annals compiled at this time follow preexisting models, 
while others show a distinct improvement, especially the 
" Royal Annals," which were compiled under the influence 
of the royal " litterateurs." The most noteworthy of this 
type are the annals of Lorsch, which follow the course of 
contemporary history down to the year 829 ; they have been 
assigned without sufficient reason to Einhard, since it is 
known that works of a similar character, the " Gesta," of the 
bishops of Metz, were composed by Paul the Deacon. 

The greatest monument of the literary revival is Ein- 
hard's " Life of Charles." Its author, who had studied at 
Fulda, and become a member of the court circle sometime 
between 791 and 796, was a favorite of the Emperor, and 
received as a gift several abbeys. Suetonius was taken 
as a model by Einhard, but was not slavishly followed. He 
oftentimes changes the phrases of his original, and, copyist 
as he is, he leaves on the reader the impression of fresh- 
ness and vigor. Allowing himself to be guided by his 
original, he sets down much information which the ordinary 
medieval biographer leaves unmentioned. 

Many letters of this time have been preserved, among 
the most interesting being the correspondence of Alcuin. 
Poetry was widely read, and all sorts of subjects were 
treated in verse. Especial attention was given to metrical 
inscriptions intended to be placed over the doors of churches 
or private houses, on walls, altars, tombs, and in books. 
The acrostic form was extremely popular and applied with 



CHARLES THE GREAT 185 

great ingenuity. For the more serious poetic efforts, the 
most popular models were the Christian poets, Prudentius 
and Fortunatus. But pagan authors were by no means neg- 
lected, for Ovid, Virgil, Martial, Horace, Lucan, and Pro- 
pertius all found imitators. Attempts were made to re- 
vive epic poetry, some of the writers, as in the case of 
Hugelbert, by no means doing discredit to their classical 
models. 

While Latin was the official language, Charles did all he 
could to encourage his native Teutonic speech; he made 
collections of the folklore poetry of his own people, directed 
the preparation of a " Frank " grammar, and tried to in- 
troduce the custom of using the Teutonic names for the 
months of the year and winds. But throughout the greater 
part of Gaul the " Romance " tongue predominated, though 
educated people did not care to employ it. Charles' biog- 
rapher tells us that the Emperor spoke it along with Prank- 
ish and Latin. At the Council of Tours, in 813, the bishops 
decided that the homilies should be translated into Ro- 
mance in order to be understood by the congregation. 

Warlike songs in the vernacular, celebrating the ex- 
ploits of the Franks, are mentioned. The great deeds of 
the Emperor himself had this popular recognition, espe- 
cially the expedition into Spain and the wars of the Saxons, 
which excited the popular fancy. That the actual com- 
batants were accustomed to recount, in verse, both Prank- 
ish and Romance, the events they themselves had witnessed, 
is known from the case of Adalbert, a veteran of the wars 
with the Avars and the Slavs, whose narrative was 
taken down by a monk of St. Gall, and transcribed 
into Latin. 

Carolingian art, like Carolingian literature, was pre-emi- 
nently religious. The revival of art was to a great extent a 
restoration, i.e., an attempt to keep already existing church 
buildings from falling into ruin. This process of destruc- 
tion was due to the avarice and carelessness of the genera- 
tions immediately preceding the founding of the Empire. 
New churches were also constructed, the work of building 



i86 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

being laid on the various communities and superintended 
by the bishops and the counts. The Emperor's minister of 
public works was Einhard, to whom have been attributed, 
without sufficient ground, however, some of the greatest 
monuments of the period, the bridges at Mainz, the palace 
and church at Aix, and the palace at Ingelheim. Though 
the monuments of Carolingian architecture were scattered 
over a wide extent of territory, Germany, Gaul, and Lom- 
bardy, few have survived. Wood was used for both basilicas 
and country churches, especially in the Northern parts of 
the Empire, and such buildings were naturally not durable. 
Where stone was employed, restoration has so altered the 
original construction that few examples of the architecture 
of this period can be identified with certainty. The basilica 
type of church, usual in Merovingian France, was retained, 
but more attention was given to the technique of ancient 
art. Einhard, we know, read Vitruvius. An original 
feature of the Carolingian age was the lantern tower, square 
or cylindrical, erected at the transept crossing, and sur- 
mounted by a cupola containing the church bells. 

Byzantine architecture was much admired in court circles, 
and the desire to imitate the earlier periods of Grseco-Roman 
art led to a systematic plundering of the ancient buildings 
in the Italian peninsula, from which all sorts of architectural 
fragments, great and small, were carried across the Alps, 
to be incorporated, generally without much sense of pro- 
portion or fitness, in the newly constructed edifices. The 
most interesting example of this revived Byzantine archi- 
tecture is the Emperor's own chapel at Aix, which still 
serves as a nave in the existing church. Workmen from 
all quarters of the civilized world were sent for to engage 
in its construction; marbles, sculpture, and mosaics were 
brought from Italy, chiefly from Ravenna. Eighteen years 
elapsed before the church was completed, and it was con- 
secrated with imposing ceremonial by Leo III, on January 
I, 805. It is a copy of the well-known church of St. Vitalis 
in Ravenna. Around an octagonal center, which measures 
fourteen and a half meters, there are galleries in two 



CHARLES THE GREAT 187 

stones, to which access is given by turrets containing wind- 
ing staircases. The Emperor's contemporaries were not 
conscious of the mistakes in the execution of this copy of a 
famous Byzantine model, and the chapel of Aix was spoken 
of by Einhard as admirable and of supreme beauty. It was 
followed by others in the same style, one of which, at Ger- 
main-des-Pres, still preserves, despite restoration, distinct 
traces of the original design. 

The age was remarkable, also, for the extension and 
building of monastic foundations. These buildings, as com- 
pared with the later monastic structures, followed a simple 
plan, with the church edifice forming the center of the com- 
plex. Around the square cloister were placed the common 
room, the school, the library, the refectory, and the dor- 
mitory. Near by were the abbot's home, the guest chamber, 
and the infirmary. An idea of the extent of these build- 
ings may be had from the dimensions of a well-known 
French abbey, St. Wandrile, where the refectory and the 
dormitory measure 208 feet long by 2J feet wide. As 
to secular architecture, it is represented solely by the im- 
perial palaces at Nymwegen, Ingelheim, and Aix. 

The palace at Aix^ like the church, has for its model a 
building at Ravenna, the so-called palace of Theodoric. As 
all of the dependents of the court had to be accommodated, 
the ground floor covered a considerable space. In the 
center were the apartments of the imperial family, the 
audience chamber, the baths. In a large wing of the build- 
ing, connecting it with the chapel, there was room for the 
school, the library, the archives. In interior decoration 
stucco, mosaic work, and mural painting were used rather 
than sculpture, in which art Carolingian workers showed 
little skill. The Emperor, though he prohibited the wor- 
ship of images, expressly directed the use in church of 
mural paintings, with subjects taken from the Scriptures. 
In the palaces the same art was used to illustrate the 
secular history of the Empire. 

The Emperor's deeds were depicted on the walls and ex- 
plained in poetical inscriptions. Mosaic was used for floors 



1 88 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

and wall spaces, and red and green porphyry were especially 
sought after for the decorative designs that often covered 
the interior of the cupola, as at Aix, where the Christ is 
represented on a gold background covered with red stars, 
blessing twelve aged men at his feet, and accompanied by 
two angels. 

Work in the precious metals and in ivory was frequent 
in the churches, since each had a treasury, and a third 
of the income, saved from tithes, was assigned for religious 
ornaments. In these collections gold reliquaries with chased 
work and precious stones were specially valued ; also porta- 
ble altars and ciboria. The " ivories," of which interesting 
specimens are still preserved, are remarkable for the care 
displayed in continuing the traditions of this branch of 
Christian art, as practised both in the Eastern Empire and 
in Italy during earlier centuries. 

Books are recorded also in the inventories of the church 
treasuries, and the specimens that have survived attest the 
artistic value of Carolingian calligraphy. The style of writ- 
ing, under the influence of English and Irish models, is clear 
and free from abbreviations. Besides the miniatures, these 
manuscripts exhibit artistically drawn letters, effectively 
combined, and characters done in gold and silver on a pur- 
ple background. There were a number of schools where the 
art of copying was taught, the most celebrated being at 
Tours, under the supervision of Alcuin. The national li- 
brary at Paris has a beautiful example of this work in a 
book of the Gospels prepared for Charles in 781, by the 
monk Godescalk. In Vienna, in the imperial treasury, there 
is another Gospel book in similar style, which, legend says, 
was found on the knees of the Emperor when his tomb was 
opened. 

In church music, the Emperor continued his father's 
policy of encouraging the Roman use of singing the psalter, 
as opposed to the Gallic custom. Masters were brought 
from Rome for this purpose and schools established at St. 
Gall and at Metz. There is still in the first-named place a 
Gregorian antiphonary, brought at this time from Italy, for 



CHARLES THE GREAT 189 

the purpose of giving musical instruction after the Roman 
method. 



IX 

ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 

Turning now to questions of economic development, one 
is impressed by the small part played by city life in the 
Empire, and by the industrial importance of the manor. The 
landed proprietor depended on his country seat for his sup- 
port in the most real sense of the word. We find Einhard, 
while residing at the court at Aix, bidding his tenants send 
him flour, malt, wine, cheese, and other products, and he 
orders 360 bricks to be made in the country. Even the 
workmen, who are engaged in building work in the town, 
are to be sent from the " villa." Small estates had com- 
pletely disappeared and agricultural communities were the 
exception. The villas were often placed near together, a 
tendency which led to the multiplication of country churches, 
whose existence up to this time is only infrequently men- 
tioned in legal documents. It was this evolution from a 
union of " villas," or the country seats on great estates, 
which led to the creation of the villages. The growth of 
large estates may have been due to the impoverishment of 
the small landed proprietor, but other important factors 
in the change were the wide extent of frontier land and 
the growing importance of the monasteries. The monastic 
estates were of imposing size, as it was the custom for 
the small land owners to cede their property to the monastic 
communities, sometimes to escape taxation, but also from 
motives of ecclesiastical loyalty to those whom they looked 
up to as models of Christian virtue, and whose prayers 
they coveted as efficacious in healing all spiritual dis- 
tress. 

The importance of these institutions is revealed in the 
figures given for St. Wandrile, which had on its rolls 
1727 manses, inhabited by a population numbering 10,000 



190 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

souls. Luxeuil had 15,000 manses, and Alcuin, the abbot 
of St. Martin at Tours, is reported to have had on his do- 
main no less than 20,000 serfs. 

The celebrated Polypticon of Irminion, the abbot of St. 
Germain-des-Pres, drawn up between 800 and 826, records 
the administration of one of these great monastic estates. 
The acreage belonging to the abbey was 26,613 hectares, 
and was spread over seven existing French departments. 
The parcels of ground numbered 1646; over 10,000 per- 
sons were employed, among them only eight freedmen, the 
rest being either serfs or *' coloni." 

Of the land, about two-thirds was arable and one-third 
wooded. The dues from the tenants were collected in 
money, cattle, poultry, wine, wheat, pitch, linen, mustard, 
woolen stuff, and thread, honey, wax, oil, and soap, instru- 
ments of wood and iron, firewood, torches. The annual 
revenue of the abbey was nearly $600,000, a sum which 
amounted to more than $20 per household. 

But the largest landed proprietor was the King; and 
food, drink, and articles of clothing were supplied to the 
court by the villa system. The royal capitularies give the 
exact details as to the industrial administration of an es- 
tate. There were many outbuildings included in the royal 
villa, such as kitchens, bakeries, stables, dairies, etc. Fish- 
eries, too, were encouraged. There were vegetable gardens 
and flower gardens, in which seventy-four kinds of plants 
were cultivated, among them many of the vegetables in 
common use at the present time, and sixteen species of 
trees, including fig, pear, apple, peach, and cherry trees. 
In the villa were found various kinds of artisans, smiths, 
workers in precious metals, cobblers, saddlers, carpenters, 
turners, rope makers. The women's apartments were pro- 
vided with rooms artificially heated, and in them women 
wove wool and linen goods, and also prepared them for 
use by dyeing, although it must be noted that the range of 
coloring matters was limited. The staff was organized into 
a kind of industrial hierarchy under special officers, who 
supervised the work or kept the accounts. Over all stood 



CHARLES THE GREAT 191 

the " mayor," who had the supervision of as much land in 
his district as he could visit in a day. 

Care was exercised by the Emperor that these dependents 
should receive enough to live on ; no one was to be reduced 
to poverty, and provision was made to protect all from 
unjust treatment at the hands of their superiors. The 
maximum price of staple articles, such as wheat and wine, 
was fixed; cornering the market was forbidden, likewise 
exportation from a given locality when crops were poor. 
The bishops and counts were charged to see that the owners 
of estates looked after the indigent, whether slave or free, 
lest any should die of hunger. 

Economically the monasteries were really productive 
centers. Their artisans at first supplied only the needs of 
the monastic community itself ; then, as there was a surplus, 
the abbots established industrial centers for wider distribu- 
tion outside the monastic precincts. The oldest of such 
Carohngian factories, so far as we know, was St. Riquier, 
which contained special quarters for each trade. Indeed, 
many continental cities owe their origin to this industrial 
movement. The workingmen were organized in unions, 
guilds, or confraternities, whose purpose was primarily 
charity, resembling mutual aid societies, with features pro- 
viding for insurance in case of loss by fire or shipwreck. 

As villa manufacture was confined to articles of com- 
mon need, more elaborate tastes had to be gratified by 
importation from places beyond the limits of the northern 
countries of Europe. The Emperor gave great attention 
to guarding the frontiers, so that foreign commerce could 
be carried on in security. The great trade routes followed 
the rivers. There was a regularly developed system of 
markets and fairs held near the cities and the monasteries, 
as in the case of St. Denis, near Paris, where for a space 
of four weeks goods were exposed for sale by traders from 
Spain, Southern France, and Lombardy. 

In Germany and in the more remote portions of the 
Empire, near the Slavic frontiers, the government estab- 
lished shelters and exchange offices for the convenience of 



192 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

merchants, and strict care was taken that arms were not 
sold to the enemy. Chief among the entrepots of commerce 
was the city of Mainz, famous for its cloth manufacture. 
Charles planned to make of it the great imperial economic 
center, and in pursuance of this program provided for the 
construction of a wooden bridge over the Rhine. He pro- 
posed also to build a canal to connect the Danube with the 
Rhine. But the bridge was destroyed by fire, and the canal 
offered too serious difficulties for the engineers of his age 
to surmount. 

Trade between the Empire and Great Britain and Ireland 
was encouraged. There was a lighthouse at Boulogne, and 
at Quentovia, now Etaples, a customs-house was estab- 
lished and placed under the supervision of Gerrold, a shrewd 
man of affairs, abbot of St. Wandrile. The constant stream 
of pilgrims passing from the islands was protected by the 
Emperor, and they proved useful in drawing closer the 
commercial ties with these remoter portions of the civilized 
world. Naturally the Mediterranean commerce was the 
more important, and the Emperor was careful to keep up 
good relations with Eastern princes, both Christian and 
Moslem. 

Imports consisted of purple stuffs, silk cloaks of various 
colors, worked leather, perfumes, unguents, and medicinal 
plants, spices, Indian pearls, Egyptian papyrus, and even 
exotic animals, such as monkeys and elephants. The cities 
in Southern France were especially frequented for trade, 
many of them having a cosmopolitan population. The Jews 
were valued for their business capacity, and also for their 
knowledge of languages and medical science. They were 
not allowed to own landed property, but no restrictions 
were placed on their loan operations, or on their commercial 
ventures. 

A marked improvement is noted in the coinage. After 
800 the bust of the Emperor appears with an indication of 
the Roman military cloak and the words *' Carolus Im- 
perator " ; on the reverse is a temple with a cross and the 
inscription " Religio Christiana." 



CHARLES THE GREAT 193 

The financial administration of the government offered 
few compHcations, because the obHgations on the state in 
the way of expenses were most limited. The chief item 
in the imperial budget, which preserved the personal and 
household character of the Merovingian period, was for 
the maintenance of the royal palaces, for the presents made 
by the king to churches, to foreign princes, or to the great 
officers of the Empire. Direct taxes were of the capitation 
type, graded according to the position of the individual 
taxed. The ordinary fiscal resources were made up from 
the income of the King from his own estates, from tributes 
paid by vassal nations, from war booty, obligatory annual 
gifts, and indirect taxes. The revenue from the royal 
estates, which were excellently managed, was considerable, 
and there must have been a large sum credited to the ac- 
count of booty from the various successful wars. 

The '' benevolences," to use a term familiar in the con- 
stitutional and financial history of England, were not fixed, 
and the records speak in an indefinite way of the contribu- 
tion offered by faithful subjects of the Empire in the annual 
assemblies. But it is plain that these so-called gifts included 
precious stones and valuable fabrics, as well as gold and 
silver. 

The principal indirect taxes were in the form of personal 
service, rather than in money payments. Local taxation 
meant special work on roads, bridges, and making dikes. 
For the great bridge at Mainz, labor was called for from 
many localities, because it was an imperial work, intended 
for the common benefit of the whole Empire. Transporta- 
tion dues are frequently mentioned in the Carolingian laws, 
as well as the right of " lodging," by which the inhabitants 
of a community were obliged to lodge and entertain the 
King and his officials on their travels, and to receive the 
representatives of foreign powers and others, to whom the 
royal privilege was given. A bishop, for example, had the 
right to receive forty loaves a day, three lambs, three meas- 
ures of ale, a gallon of milk, three chickens, fifteen eggs, 
and four measures of feed for his horses. 



194 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

The greatest difficulties of the government were not finan- 
cial, but military, for the state of warfare was almost con- 
tinuous, especially along the Alps, the Pyrenees, and from 
the Eider to the lower Danube. The summons for calling 
together the units of the military forces was either carried 
by means of direct envoys or by letters sent to the counts, 
bishops, and abbots, and sometimes by the " missi." These 
officials had to see that all those who were liable to service 
should be prepared to take their places when the call to 
arms was given. One of the " missi " writes : '' let all be 
so prepared that, if the order to leave comes in the even- 
ing, they will leave without delay for Italy on the morning 
of the next day, but if it comes in the morning, in the 
evening of the same day." 

The following letter, addressed to Fulrad, abbot of Saint 
Quentin, gives the full text of one of these summonses : 
'' KnoWj that we have fixed this year our meeting place in 
the country of the Saxons, in the Eastern part on the River 
Bota, at a place called Storosfurt. For this reason we 
direct you to be at the said place on the 15th of June ac- 
companied by all your men, well armed and well equipped, 
so that you may go under arms, wherever it seems 
good to us to direct you to march. We expressly recom- 
mend you, in order that you may see that the rest follow 
our directions, to proceed to the designated place, without 
disturbance, by the shortest road, without taking anything 
from the inhabitants but the grass, wood, and water you 
require. Let the men of your company march constantly 
with the chariots and the horsemen, and let them never 
leave them until they reach the meeting place, in order that 
in the absence of their master they may not be tempted to 
do evil." Late comers were punished by being deprived of 
rations for the time they were absent, if the period was 
short. They who failed to appear altogether were exposed 
to pay a heavy fine proportionate to their fortune. While 
on the march the troops, as we see by the terms of Ful- 
rad's letter, were to receive from the inhabitants of the 
country through which they passed fire, water, wood, and 



CHARLES THE GREAT 195 

lodging, but nothing else. They brought with them enough 
provisions to last three months, and arms and clothing for 
six months. Each warrior was expected to have a buckler, 
a lance or a sword, a bow with ten cords, and twelve ar- 
rows. Those who were better off brought with them a bet- 
ter type of shield, while the counts and those who served 
as substitutes for bishops and abbots, wore a breastplate 
and a helmet. Some of the soldiers carried slings, and, ap- 
parently, there were mounted divisions in the army. For 
certain necessary parts of war-material the counts were per- 
sonally responsible, such as three kinds of battle-axe, skins, 
battering rams, also for the transportation of these, and for 
all things required to keep the various weapons in good 
condition, and for engineering tools. 

It is interesting to note how these warlike preparations 
were arranged for. Ownership in land was the basis se- 
lected for apportioning the expense. But as the man who 
had only a small estate could not bear such an outlay, 
inequality of fortune had to be considered, and also the 
distance to be traversed to the place of meeting. These 
points were all kept in view by the legislation of the Em- 
peror, but there was no systematic attempt made to meet 
these difficulties. There were special provisions intended to 
govern special cases. In the first place, the call to arms 
was rarely made general. This was only done on excep- 
tional occasions, as in 773, for the Lombard war; in 775, 
in the war against the Saxons, and in 792, in that against 
the Avars. In 807 account was taken of the distance. The 
Saxons, for example, only sent one man out of six against 
the Spaniards and the Avars; one out of three was de- 
manded against the Slavs; but in case of conflict with 
their neighbors, the Suabi, all Saxon warriors had to take 
up arms. There was also an apportionment according to 
race: the Franks were called upon to confront the Saxons, 
the Lombards and Bavarians marched against the Avars; 
while, in case of war with the Spanish Arabs, the Aquita- 
nians, the Southern Goths, the Provengals, and the Bur- 
gundians had to make up the imperial army. In the war 



196 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

against the Slavs, the Emperor called upon the Eastern 
Franks, the Saxons, the Alemanni, and the Thuringians. 

In 807 the Emperor made the following arrangement as 
to military service: Every man who owned three manses 
had to appear under arms; of two landowners, each one 
of whom had two manses, one was to provide the equipment 
for the other, and he who could go earliest had to appear 
for miUtary duty. Of three landowners, who had but one 
manse apiece, one must go, while the other two were to 
provide the equipment, and so on, the same arrangement be- 
ing appHed to owners of smaller parcels of ground. An- 
other year, the duty of serving in the army began with 
the owners of four manses. The working of this graduated 
system of service was left in the hands of the " missus," 
who made his arrangements in view of the prospective 
campaign. 

It was evidently the Emperor's purpose to make the 
burden as light as possible for the small landholder, and 
at the same time the obligation to serve was extended to 
those who had no landed property. So we find it declared 
in 806 that " if there are six landless men who own each 
as much as the value of six silver pennies, i.e., a pound and 
a half of the metal, one has to serve and be equipped by 
the other five." But the freemen alone were not sufficient 
to fill up the ranks; for, under the strict application of 
this system, no one was obliged to serve who held land in 
dependence, or as a " beneficium " from a wealthy land- 
owner, nor did the obligation rest on those who had sur- 
rendered their lands to the Church, or to a powerful lay- 
man, in order to receive it back again under the conditions 
of a "beneficium." This class were not wholly free, nor 
were they actually landowners. 

The problem of keeping up the war strength without 
oppressing the small landowner was solved in the follow- 
ing way : Charles called together, under the following con- 
ditions, those who were his own tenants. " Let every free- 
man," he directed, " who owns absolutely four manses, or 
who holds them from another in the relation of a 'bene- 



CHARLES THE GREAT 197 

ficium,' undertake to furnish his own equipment and join 
the army, either with his lord, if his lord is going there, or 
with the count." These distributions enabled the Emperor 
to get recruits who otherwise would have escaped service; 
the other more remote result was that the " beneficium " 
system received legal recognition, and in this way the Em- 
peror himself cooperated in the disintegrating tendencies by 
which the feudalized state finally destroyed the imperial 
system. 

The lot of the small landowner was made hard and un- 
endurable under the terms of the imperial military regu- 
lations, despite the compromises intended by Charles to 
protect him. There was every inducement to the owner of 
a small holding to give it up. We find, for example, an im- 
perial order forbidding freemen without permission from 
the Emperor to enter the clerical profession, " for we have 
heard," he says, '' that certain of them are not so much 
actuated by devotion as by a desire to escape service in the 
army, and other public duties to the sovereign." The fact, 
too, that rules regulating this subject were extremely com- 
plicated, led to all kinds of abuses on the part of those who 
were intrusted with their execution. In a report made to 
the Emperor, we read that *' the poor people claim that, if 
one of them is not willing to abandon his property to the 
bishop or abbot, or count, or ' master of a hundred,' these 
officials find occasion to have him condemned and compel 
him to go to the place where the army is mobilized, so 
that being reduced to misery he is forced, whether he wants 
to or not, to give up his property or sell it." It was added 
that those who had made this sacrifice were not disturbed. 

The recriminations of the poor were directed against 
clerical and lay officers without distinction; and we 
hear of their grievances against bishops, abbots, and their 
legal representatives, as well as against the counts and 
other laymen. The Emperor's efforts proved futile, and 
he not only could not resist the movement of his age, but 
he found himself promoting the evolution he criticised. He 
actually gave exemptions under his own seal to a certain 



198 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

number of religious houses. The counts, on their side, 
made a practice of giving exemptions and dispensations 
from military service. The landlord was allowed a kind of 
authority over the tenant in questions in which the holding 
of land was not involved. The rule that each landowner 
must be conducted to the place of mobilization by the count 
was broken, and the landed proprietors were allowed to 
appear ready for service, at the head of their tenants and 
dependents, a distinct anticipation of the later feudal 
custom. 

The mass of the people did not fail to let their senti- 
ments be known when the Emperor proceeded to extend 
the privilege of quartering his functionaries on private indi- 
viduals. The imperial officers were assaulted and their bag- 
gage stolen. There was much complaint, too, of the in- 
cessant calls to military service. Many sacrificed, there- 
fore, their free status, which simply meant to them the 
constant obligation to be under arms, and they entered the 
ecclesiastical profession or became dependents of those who 
were more powerful. Carolingian legislation permitted the 
freeman to " commend " himself to whomsoever he would 
" after the death of his lord," and so that process began by 
which the central authority was robbed of its own subjects, 
the small, free landowners. Thus it was that the medieval 
regime took definite shape as a governmental hierarchy 
based on the possession of landed estates, great and small, 
worked either by serfs or by tenants, related to their over- 
lord by various kinds of dependent tenures. 



X 

THE CHURCH 

In his relations with the Church, Charles gave a liberal 
interpretation to his acknowledged powers of guidance and 
direction; the kind of role he was willing to undertake 
shows that he drew no hard and fast line between the 



CHARLES THE GREAT 199 

secular and spiritual prerogatives of a monarch. For ax- 
ample,, in the Adoptionist Controversy, he took the initiative 
himself in settling a troublesome problem of theological 
speculation. According to the Adoptionists, in Christ there 
are a divine personality and a human personaHty, which lat- 
ter becomes by adoption the Son of God. This tenet was 
eagerly embraced in Spain, its two best-known adherents 
being Elipandus, Archbishop of Toledo, and FeHx, Bishop 
of Urgel, the latter a city in the North of Spain under the 
authority of the Prankish King, who, therefore, immedi- 
ately took steps to bring the subject in dispute before a 
council, assembled at Regensburg, " under the orders of the 
most glorious and orthodox King Charles." Felix was con- 
victed of false teaching and sent to Rome to appear before 
Pope Hadrian. Though Felix was deprived of his bishopric 
he continued to be supported by the Spanish episcopate, 
who collectively wrote to Charles for his restoration. At 
Frankfort, in 794, a council of prelates from various Prank- 
ish sees met and listened to the King, who read the letter 
from the Spanish bishops. The council then heard a long 
technical speech from their ruler on the questions at issue. 
The Bishop of Urgel was again condemned, but the matter 
was not decided until a few years later, in 799, when a 
long discussion, lasting over six days, took place at Aix 
between Felix and Alcuin, the conclusion of which was that 
Felix allowed that he was overcome in argument, and pub- 
lished a retraction. 

Charles was equally interested in two other religious con- 
troversies of his time, and he made his personal point of 
view predominant in spite of the weight of church authority 
on the other side. At the Council of Frankfort the bishops 
had received from Pope Hadrian the acts passed at the Sec- 
ond General Council of Nicaea dealing with the subject ot 
image worship, a matter that had been debated with much 
violence in the East and in Italy for several generations. 
At Frankfort it was supposed, owing to an inability to un- 
derstand the precise meaning of certain Greek words, that 
the Nicene Council had formally ordered the adoration of 



200 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

images, and its decrees were therefore rejected. The Em- 
peror undertook the defense of the Western point of view, 
and in doing so did not hesitate to differ with Rome itself. 
He also took up an independent position on a more vital 
point. It seems that during Leo Ill's pontificate certain 
French monks residing in the East were charged with 
heresy because they inserted in the so-called Nicene Creed, 
in the article dealing with the procession of the Holy Spirit, 
i.e., where it is stated that the Holy Spirit proceeds from 
the Father, the crucial word " filioque " (and from the 
Son). The matter was taken up by Charles, and after this 
recondite theological point had been studied, the action of 
the monks was officially sanctioned by the Council of Aix- 
la-Chapelle, in 809, although the Pope refused to approve 
of any addition to the historic formula of Christian 
belief. 

In considering the Frankish ruler's attitude towards the 
Papacy, it is well to remember that the later administrative 
system of the Curia, which made so clear-cut the antagonism 
between the secular prince and the ecclesiastical hierarchy 
in the medieval times after the age of Hildebrand, had not 
yet been developed. Charles reverenced the Papacy; in- 
deed, the Pope's counsel and the Pope's words often played 
a decisive part in influencing his motives. He was a con- 
vinced believer in the Pope's right to teach the faithful, and 
he saw in him the guardian of apostolic tradition. It was 
to this tradition that he appealed when he condemned the 
Adoptionists at the Council of Frankfort. The specific 
rights of the Papacy, from this point of view, lay in its 
teaching function and in its liturgical usages, which were 
to be taken by the Christians of Charles' dominions as the 
correct norm of their practice. There was also a full rec- 
ognition of the prerogatives of the Papacy in phases of 
administration and discipline, wherever ancient precedents 
could be cited. So we find Charles appealing, in the re- 
newed disputes between the sees of Aries and Vienne, to 
the ancient directions of the Roman bishops governing this 
question. 



CHARLES THE GREAT 201 

But this recognition of the rights of Rome did not pre- 
vent Charles from regarding himself as the director of 
the Prankish Church. He speaks openly of himself as 
" the pilot of the Church in his domains," and when writ- 
ing Leo in he explains his conception of the relation of 
the kingdom and the Papacy, " Our task it is, by the help 
of God, to protect by our arms outwardly the Holy Church 
of Christ from assaults of the heathen and from being 
wasted by the unbelievers and to establish it within by rec- 
ognizing the Catholic faith. Your duty it is to support 
as Moses did, with uplifted arms our service in the battle- 
field, that the Christian people, being led through your pe- 
titions and prepared by God, may have constantly and every- 
where victory over the enemies of His name." While 
Charles assigned to the Pope a religious activity and noth- 
ing more, he regarded his own guardianship over the 
churches as extending beyond questions of their material 
welfare. In 789 in a message to the bishops he stated 
that he wished to cooperate with them, using his power 
as a ruler, and working through his subordinates to im- 
prove things where improvement was possible. These were 
the principles he used in his Church policy. Just as in 
secular matters he was not absolute, but followed the laws 
and customs of the people over whom he ruled, so in regard 
to the Church he observed its canonical system with a rever- 
ence for its minute details. But his capitularies, as we 
have seen, are filled with ecclesiastical legislation, and in 
Church matters the King acted as the supreme authority. 
Even synods laid their decrees before him for correction, 
and to secure his authoritative sanction. There was little 
place for a fully developed Papacy in an ecclesiastical sys- 
tem worked along these lines, and there are no examples 
during Charles' reign of Papal interference in the ad- 
ministration of the Church in his own domains. The Pope, 
where and when he did act, did so in concert with Charles ; 
even in cases of excommunication there was ah understand- 
ing with the King; and often the extreme penalty was in- 
flicted under his initiative. Even the exercise of discipline 



202 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

in connection with the episcopate was left in Charles' 
hands without any protest on the part of the Pope. 

These religious activities of Charles seemed natural to 
his contemporaries. Alcuin says of him that he was armed 
with two swords, the one to smite false teaching in the 
bosom of the Church, the other to protect it from the dev- 
astations of the heathen. He speaks of Charles as a 
parent and teacher, under whose rule the Church is 
placed ; yet at the same time Alcuin had the highest rever- 
ence for the Papacy and never thought of the possibility 
of conflict between the Pope and the Emperor. In Rome 
itself there was no formal acceptance of this Prankish 
conception of an ecclesiastical polity in which the Pope's 
place was that of a fifth wheel to the coach. Roman en- 
thusiasm for the Emperor, as expressed by the Roman 
clergy, was limited to encomiums on him as protector of 
the Church. He was spoken of as the faithful ruler, who, 
by his energy and his benefactions, was doing valiant work 
for Rome and for the Papacy. 

In matters of internal Church administration, the influ- 
ence of the King was often paramount in questions affect- 
ing diocesan order. There was nothing revolutionary here, 
for the independence of the Church from the State impHed 
a situation that was never dreamed of at this period, nor 
had it really existed since the time of Constantine. 
Theoretically, the choice of a bishop belonged rightfully 
to the clergy and to the laity of a diocese, but, as a matter 
of fact, the monarch controlled episcopal elections. These 
could not take place until the royal sanction had been se- 
cured, and the official in whose presence the electoral ma- 
chinery was set in motion was an appointee of the King. 
The official papers recording the election had to be sent 
to the palace, and the successful candidate could not be 
consecrated except with the King's approval. Often 
Charles himself selected the candidate; besides, if a man 
were known to be favored by him, he would, on the strength 
of this fact, be elected. Where bishops were to be ap- 
pointed for sees created in territory newly conquered from 



CHARLES THE GREAT 203 

the heathen, they were named by Charles without the form 
of an election. What is true of bishops holds also with 
regard to abbots, who, on account of the great expansion 
of monastic life, were of more importance than a diocesan 
bishop. Church councils were summoned by Charles; he- 
could preside over them, and only through his consent were 1 
the decrees they passed valid. Much attention was given- 
to a systematic organization of the hierarchy. There were 
twenty-two metropoHtical sees in the Empire, and the bishop 
was given real and effective charge of the clergy under him. 
Counties and parishes, throughout the imperial domains 
especially, were growing in number, and were placed in 
the newly acquired territories under an assistant bishop. 



XI 

THE EMPIRE WITHOUT AND WITHIN 

The diplomacy, as well as the strategy, of the Emperor 
was worthy of a far-seeing and cautious ruler. He 
kept the frontiers of the Empire assured by fortifications, 
wherever there was prospect of direct attack from the 
Danes or the Slavs, and by such means saw to it that the 
tribes bordering on the lines of defense were kept in awe 
and reduced to a state of dependence. In other places where 
the more distant Avars and the Bulgars might ultimately 
give trouble, the Emperor had taken care to come to a 
friendly arrangement with the Eastern Empire for mutual 
protection. This understanding did not, it is true, prevent 
friction between the two powers on the Adriatic Sea, where 
on several occasions the armies had met to decide their 
differences by arms. But on neither side was there any 
intention of developing consistent schemes for conquering 
the territory of the rival emperor. Disturbances were local 
and the border population was itself uncertain in allegiance, 
and ready to accept the guidance of its interests in deter- 
mining the direction of its loyalty. This kind of hesitancy 



204 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

was not found in Italy, which remained inviolably faithful 
to Charles' rule. 

The rulers of Constantinople had no time nor inclina- 
tion to repeat the experiment of Justinian and Constans 
during the reign of Charles ; they were weakened by serious 
difficulties of their own, due to disputed succession and 
religious conflict, and to the need of constant watchfulness 
against Moslem aggression. It was fortunate for both 
empires that the Saracens were not united. This was the 
most decisive factor, indeed, of the history of this period. 
The East was freed from the type of attack which had kept 
Leo the Isaurian constantly on the defensive, and which 
only his high military talents were able to cope with, while 
in the West the inability of the Moslems to act together 
made it possible for Charles to expand his territory and 
to give the time needed for internal development in the 
consolidation of his rule. 

It was one of the most permanent results of the activity 
of Charles as a conqueror that in the Spanish peninsula he 
strengthened not only the natural position of the petty 
and struggling Christian kingdoms, but by his personality 
made the ideal of a Christian ruler respected there, and so 
assured for the Christians in Spain a future which could 
be realized only when they had lived down their particu- 
larism and recognized the value of solidarity. But the 
wider field of armed conflict for the peoples included in 
his realm would have meant little, if it had not been ac- 
companied by opportunities for real social progress. 

The empire of Charles, though it was the concrete crea- 
tion of an ideal government crudely understood and most 
inadequately worked out, illustrated the liberty-loving prin- 
ciples of the Germanic peoples who were gathered in its 
fold. In this respect, with all its imperfections, the rule 
of the great Prankish monarch is more closely allied to the 
political principles of modern times than were the more 
ambitious and more logical creations of the conquerors who 
preceded and who followed him. Unconsciously, it may 
be, his system of government gave scope for local diversi- 



CHARLES THE GREAT 205 

ties and recognized rights of deep-planted traditions with a 
generosity which is characteristic not of empires such as 
those of Caesar and Napoleon, but of federal republics of 
the type of the United States, and the Federation of the 
Swiss Cantons. When he aimed at uniformity he did not 
lose sight of the fact that he was the ruler of heterogeneous 
nationalities, on whose good-will and co5peration the 
permanence of the Empire was dependent. The pressure 
of centralization was lightly exercised, simply because in 
the Emperor's mind the ideas of Roman rule had to pass 
through the medium of German tribal tradition. 

There was no steam roller set to work to equalize, if 
not to pulverize, the component parts of his realm. The 
divisions were not destroyed, but were rather combined in 
a higher political unity. The kingdom of the West Goths 
was at least preserved, though it had less of a definite 
character than the Lombard kingdom, which the Emperor 
took special pains to preserve in its integrity. Even the 
traditions of the Ostrogoths were allowed a value in so 
far as they stood for a strenuous opposition to the imperial 
policy of uniformity of administration and to the economic 
sacrifice of the local centers to the purposes of world poli- 
tics, Lombard influence had overcome both Ostrogothic 
and Roman rule; it was irreconcilable, and stood for the 
stubborn and conservative standpoint that made the first 
Germanic invaders difficult to assimilate in the provinces 
of the Roman Empire, where by force of arms they became 
the ruling class. A similar obstinacy, with its preservation 
of the original political type, marked the Lombard kingdom 
and duchies which Charles had conquered. A picturesque 
example of local initiative was not crowded out by the 
Prankish overlordship in Venice; the seafaring community 
came into being in a favored spot, on the confines of the 
two empires, too remote to be crushed from Constantinople, 
and protected from the Western ruler by a few leagues 
of shallow sea. 

The same centrifugal tendencies are seen in Southern 
Italy ; and what is more important, in Northern and Central 



2o6 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

Italy, there was no attempt to stifle the germs of municipal 
activity which produced, later on, such marvelous fruitage 
in the Italian town life of the Middle Ages. The contrast 
between the Germanic and Roman elements in the Empire 
faded away gradually under the Emperor's administration, 
but Roman civilization could not be eclipsed, while the 
laws of Justinian continued to be quoted as a model, and 
while the Church with its general use of the Latin language 
was regarded as the chief adjunct and support of con- 
tinuity in imperial rule. 

The union of the Empire and the Papacy kept up that 
tradition of civilization by which the isolation of Germanic 
tribal life was swept aside, and the Germans learned that 
there were other governmental principles than custom, and 
began to see that might was not the only right. The in- 
stitutions of the Church did more than preserve the ideal 
element for the individual and for society. They stood for 
continuity in securing the best achievements of classic cul- 
ture in government and in learning, and prevented just that 
kind of social cataclysm which marked the progress of 
Islam, when it attempted to handle mankind in the mass. 
Reverence for the Holy Scriptures, however imperfect may 
have been the acquaintance with them, had a powerful in- 
fluence in maintaining the connection of Church and State, 
and acted constantly against the divisive tendencies of racial 
rule. 

The Celts of Western France, the remnant of the people 
who had once dominated the whole of Occidental Europe, 
were brought into the sphere of general European life, 
and the same opportunities were given to the Germanic 
peoples. Allied with the population of Latin origin, they 
extended their sway over a territory which before had 
never felt the influence of centralization. The union of the 
two elements was of momentous importance, and this 
achievement stands out as the abiding result of the Em- 
peror's conquest. France and Germany made up a whole, 
in which the Teutonic element had a superior position, but 
without tyrannizing over the peoples of the Romance stock. 



CHARLES THE GREAT 207 

In Burgundy and Neustria the elements of Latin blood 
were strongest, and the contrast gave a peculiar character 
to Austrasia. 

The most significant factor of the Emperor's rule was that 
it offered a center of unity to the Teutonic tribes, consoli- 
dating them, where the Merovingian kingdoms, which also 
stood for the old Germanic tribal traditions, had shown 
complete incapacity. But under the Carolingian rule, neither 
the Alemanni, nor the Bavarians, nor the Saxons, could 
claim predominance, for the sovereign's authority was exer- 
cised apart from all these tribal influences, and yet at the 
same time the characteristics of the tribe, local sentiment, 
and customary law, were not broken up by the central gov- 
ernment. The Teutonic local division, the " Gau," was no 
more interfered with than the Gallic " Civitas." The 
power at the top of all, formed by the armed hosts of 
the component parts of the Empire and by the clergy, was 
expressed in institutions that kept the body politic together. 
In the assemblies, all the different nationalities took part, 
and acted under the guidance of the single will of a single 
ruler, who was kept from the capricious action of a tyrant 
by his firm hold on the ideal of a Christian commonwealth. 
The principles of the whole imperial system harmonized 
with popular governmental traditions, and both in their 
social and in their religious aspects answered to the popular 
conceptions of membership in a world-wide church. 

Charles, in his plans for the succession, looked forward 
to a ruling family controlling by descent a singularly het- 
erogeneous collection of races. It is unthinkable, as an 
historical principle, that the traditions and customs of race 
and tribe could be long suppressed. Since the time of Ger- 
manic invasions they had been the most potent factor in the 
evolution of Western Europe; and, though they were kept 
in the background by the energy and character of the 
Emperor, it only needed a few crises to call them forth 
into activity. Out of the interplay of these tribal inter- 
ests and racial divergencies has grown modern Europe. 

A further weakness in the Carolingian structure was due 



2o8 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

to the relation of the secular and the ecclesiastical authority. 
The grounds of conflict, even in Charles' own time, were 
never far distant. The Emperor's diplomacy and person- 
ality smoothed the acerbities away, and his attitude of com- 
promise found ready imitators in such Popes as Hadrian I 
and Leo HL There would have been a different outcome 
if, on his visits to Rome, he had been faced by a Pope of 
the temperament of Nicholas I. The possible independence 
of the spiritual power the Emperor did little to prevent by 
legislation. There was no way of avoiding such disputes, 
and the struggles for supremacy between Empire and 
Papacy attained their full development in the thirteenth 
century. 

Charles, too, showed no willingness to deal radically with 
the customary laws of succession of the Prankish peo- 
ple, and in this sphere he was far more conservative than 
the Lombards or the Ostrogoths. The principle of divi- 
sion among the heirs rather than unity of territory, meant 
in itself a great danger. It would have caused trouble to 
Charles himself had not his brother been removed by death 
early in the reign. Yet the Emperor set a strong precedent 
for its recognition in his own disposition of the Empire 
among his three sons. The position of Louis was due to 
an accident, and the old question was bound to emerge 
again when the rights of his various children, as his heirs, 
came to be considered. Nothing was done to prescribe how 
the exercise of sole rule as Emperor was to be carried 
out when the subordinate rulers of his own house proved 
reluctant to obey their head. 

The Empire plainly was only secure if its various rulers 
could consent to work harmoniously together; a division 
among them, a break between the Church and the State, 
the exaltation of the idea of nationality and race, were 
all possibilities which would surely destroy the integrity 
of Charles' imperial construction. The history of the 
century after his death shows the weak sides of the Em- 
peror's benevolent optimism. He contemplated a great 
Christian republic directed by a family united in its mem- 



CHARLES THE GREAT 209 

bers and guided by patriarchal instinct. In working out 
this program, Charles was an opportunist as well as an 
optimist; he took the component political factors as he 
found them, and introduced them as the stones of a mosaic, 
thinking more of the whole than of the parts, seemingly- 
oblivious of the disparity of the elements he was intro- 
ducing into the fabric. The distinctions of race were cer- 
tain to become accentuated the moment the central power 
showed weakness and proved itself unable to be an effect- 
ual protection against anarchy within or attacks from the 
outside. 

In its political creativeness the Emperor's work was 
framed on a smaller scale than he contemplated. He pro- 
posed an Empire, but he really founded kingdoms — the his- 
toric kingdoms of Western Europe. The inheritors of his 
system were the territorial monarchs, who took from him 
the conception of a supreme secular power closely united 
with the Church. The actual central authority established 
by Charles soon passed away, but the peoples included 
within it, endowed with the energy proceeding from him, 
as a source, survived and developed. The ground pre- 
pared by him was the foundation for the national king- 
doms with whose vicissitudes and progress the course of 
civilization has been unalterably connected. He has been 
well named, therefore, the Patriarch of Europe, the Abra- 
ham in whose seed the political world has been blessed. 

The ablest monarchs of Europe, both in the Middle Ages 
and in modern times, from Otto III to Napoleon, includ- 
ing Frederic Barbarossa and Louis XIV, all have felt the 
power of his personality. Napoleon speaks of him as his 
illustrious predecessor. Yet, as a politician, Charles was 
inferior to his father, Pippin, whose shrewdness in arrang- 
ing momentous political combinations he did not inherit, 
and on the field of battle he was not the equal of his 
grandfather, Charles Martel. He never won a battle such 
as Poictiers, and with one or two exceptions the narrative 
of his campaigns shows nothing of the skilful and spectacular 
generalship of Belisarius. 



210 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

In his wars no unusual gifts of strategy were required; 
no great mastery of tactics was necessary. But he was what 
one of his contemporaries declared, " the powerful fighter 
who smote the Saxons and humbled the hearts of the 
Franks and Barbarians, who had been able to resist the 
might of the Romans." His campaigns attest energy and 
obstinacy, a clear-sighted ability to see when and where 
a decisive blow must be delivered. He never lost his head 
in a dangerous position, and so he was able to take in a 
military problem in its various aspects, and while resting 
at one stage of a conflict, he could quietly prepare to over- 
come his adversaries in a second move. 

His mind was well balanced, it worked logically and with 
a large vision, and he aimed at acting in such a way that 
the innumerable details of his work as ruler would be 
explicable and could harmonize as parts of a well-con- 
sidered whole. He was general-in-chief, and he also reaHzed 
as we have seen, Constantine's description of himself in 
relation to the Church, as " chief bishop for its external 
affairs." As a judge, Charles was the supreme court of ap- 
peal, and was in this capacity remarkable for his severity 
and unsparing attitude to the guilty. Though he was not 
a genius as an administrator, he showed industry and judg- 
ment in using and in improving such organs of govern- 
ment as were known in his day in Western Europe. As 
we have pointed out, his capitularies show him to us as a 
great landlord, familiar with agricultural methods, able to 
measure the economic needs of a large estate, and to act 
accordingly, possessing an extraordinary amount of prac- 
tical energy and versatiHty. 

There was no limit to his interests, and he brought in a 
high conception of duty. Up to the close of his life noth- 
ing was too small to escape his personal supervision; he 
kept count of the chickens on his personal estates, dictated 
his capitularies, and learned the art of writing, a rare ac- 
complishment, and deemed among the Teutonic races the 
special work of a cleric. He presided over assemblies 
and councils, ordered the system of chanting in his private 



CHARLES THE GREAT 211 

chapel, and hardly a year passed by that he did not visit 
one of the frontiers of the Empire. His mental capacity 
was characterized by something of the mobility which be- 
longed to the Renaissance period, a trait not seen among 
medieval rulers, and perhaps paralleled only in the case 
of Frederick H. His talents were not employed towards 
futile ends; he economized them, and while he was open 
to impressions, he kept with scrupulousness his store of 
energy under control. He was free from Napoleon's de- 
fect of fitting all things as parts of a rigid system, and he 
knew when to keep his hands from disarranging a firmly 
established social order. 

It may be that a larger measure of interference from 
him would have prevented the growth of feudal privileges 
which the land system of Western Europe was already pro- 
ducing. This evolution he did not oppose ; in some cases his 
own acts furthered it. The court and " missi " under his 
direction became, as it were, observers and directors of a 
naturally developing type of local administration which the 
general ordinances of the Empire did nothing to repress. 
Feudal customs, still, of course, in their germ, were pressed 
into the service of the state, as for example when the lord 
was required to appear accompanied by his dependents at 
the general military assembly of the King. The Emperor 
was quick in reconciling local divergencies, and in discern- 
ing some easily practicable method of making seemingly 
irreconcilable factors contribute mutually to his ends. When 
a governmental order failed, he was fertile in discerning 
an immediate remedy, careless whether the innovation of 
a reform could be theoretically accommodated to the ad- 
ministration as it before existed. Wherever the structure he 
planned turned out faulty, he went to work with the spirit 
of an artist who thinks more of the safety of the whole 
building than of the harmony of its parts. His ideal of rule 
was always before him, yet there was none of the stage 
effect of which Napoleon was so fond. He did not try 
to impress upon others principles that did not attract his 
own sympathies. He believed in what he did and believed 



212 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

the way he was doing it was consistent with his own ideals 
of right, personal and social. The empire was to be a 
community guided by Christian standards, a visible em- 
bodiment of the City of God, as understood in his day. 

The dream was a mighty one, and proved inspiring largely 
because it was impersonal. The Emperor stood as the 
champion, unselfish and devoted, of progress, so far as 
his age appreciated that much abused term. It was, at 
least, a reality in respect to the conscious effort on his part 
to moralize government, and by doing so to contribute to 
an ideal solidarity of men and races. Yet the task he had 
assigned himself was too great; and his work remained 
but an unfinished sketch, soon to be demoHshed in the 
troublous and hopeless reigns of his descendants. 



THE OTTOMANS 



OSMAN 



The empire of the Seldjoukian Turks by which the cru- 
sading conquests were destroyed, showed no greater powers 
of endurance than the other creations of Moslem rule ; it did 
not escape the tendency to dismemberment due to the trans- 
fer of personal and autocratic control into the hands of rul- 
ers of mediocre ability. By the beginning of the fourteenth 
century the effect of disintegration showed itself plainly 
and definitely in Western Asia throughout the territory 
which had been won from the Emperors of Eastern Rome. 
One of the results of the expansion of the Mongol con- 
quests towards the West was to hasten not only the divi- 
sion among the Seldjouks, but their speedy downfall. Their 
Sultans found no safety against the pressure of the Mon- 
gols on their territories, even though they combined with 
their Christian neighbors, with whom they had kept up 
for so long incessant warfare, against a danger which threat- 
ened annihilation to all races and peoples in the path of 
the Mongol hordes from the East. The Turks made peace 
with the Greeks at Nicsea, and even engaged the help of 
Prankish mercenary troops, but these counsels of despair 
did not save them from becoming tributaries to the Mon- 
gol rulers of Asia. 

As early as 1243 the fatal course of the decadence was 
marked by constant defeat, and from this time on they 
were not able to defend their position. The Sultanate came 
practically to an end with the death of Masud II of Iconium, 
who was murdered by one of his emirs, though the Mon- 
gols continued the office, ruling under the name of Ala- 

213 



214 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

ed-Din II, 1297-1307. Of the ten fragments which repre- 
sented the former empire of the Seldjouks, one was con- 
trolled by Osman, from whose name the latest and most 
enduring effort to establish a Moslem world power takes 
its origin. Within the restricted bounds of a small emirate, 
whose most important point was the ancient city of Dor- 
Iseum, now called Sultan-Oeni, was trained and developed 
the people who were destined to make great European con- 
quests lasting down to our own day, to threaten for many 
centuries Christian powers at their most vulnerable centers, 
and, finally, when their own ability to conquer and dev- 
astate had come to an end, to stir up such constant 
jealousies among the states which claimed the succession 
to their dominions in Europe, that some of the most 
disastrous and hardly contested wars in the nineteenth 
century have been due to their presence on European 
soil. 

No more than in the case of Mohammed could such far- 
reaching consequences have been detected in the obscure be- 
ginnings of the people over whom Osman began to rule 
as an independent prince. Nearly a century before, his an- 
cestor Souliman had led a migration from Khorassan ; with 
tribal adherents numbering 150,000, he took possession of 
lands near Erzendjan and Akhlath; then came the inva- 
sion of the Mongols, which brought ruin to these plans of 
settlement. Souliman, in his flight from the invaders, was 
drowned as he was crossing the Euphrates at a place called 
to-day Turk-Mesari, the tomb of the Turk. On his death 
the nomads who followed his leadership were dispersed; 
even his four sons failed to keep together. Two returned 
to the place from which they had come, while the other 
two, Dundar and Ertoghroul, keeping four hundred fami- 
lies with them, occupied territories near Erzeroum. But as 
the proximity of the Mongols held out no prospect of peace- 
ful possession, the two brothers continued their march 
westward, and finally put themselves under the protection 
of Ala-ed-Din I, Sultan of the Seldjouks. (1219-1234.) 

According to the legendary account, while Ertoghroul was 



THE OTTOMANS 215 

making his way West, he found himself on the top of a 
mountain ridge, where, looking down on the plain, he saw 
two armies about to engage each other. He decided to help 
those who were weaker, and adding his warriors to those 
who were giving way, he put the enemy to flight. At the 
close of the battle he found that he had brought victory 
over a horde of Mongols to the armies of Ala-ed-Din I, 
who, as a reward for this unexpected aid, gave the new- 
comers the mountain regions of Toumanidj and Ermeni as 
a dwelling place in summer, and the plain of Soegud for 
their winter quarters. Ertoghroul showed his loyalty to his 
new sovereign by undertaking successful raids against the 
outposts of the Greek Empire of Nicsea in parts adjacent 
to his own lands. Although under a Moslem overlord, Er- 
toghroul and his people still continued faithful to their an- 
cestral polytheism, but he showed such great respect for 
the sacred volume of Mohammed, that it was not surprising 
when his son and successor, Osman or Othman (1288-1326), 
became converted to the religion of Islam. 

This important event was connected with his marriage 
with the daughter of a cheikh belonging to the Seldjouks, 
Edebali, who, according to the legends of the Ottoman 
race, mysteriously foretold the future greatness of his son- 
in-law, and worked actively for the conversion of all his 
people. Up to this time the followers of Osman were noth- 
ing more than a band of nomads of mixed race composed 
of Turcomans, probably containing two Mongol elements. 
This change of religion not only gave them unity, but en- 
abled them in the critical period of the Mongol conquests to 
act as a center around which were gathered all those of the 
Turkish race who held to Mohammedan orthodoxy. The 
first step was the absorption of the Seldjouks, a process 
natural enough because of racial affinity, but as time went 
on religious professions, not racial relationship, became so 
predominant a characteristic in Ottoman rule, that con- 
verts of all nationalities, Greeks, Slavs, Albanians, Rouma- 
nians, and Magyars, were absorbed without prejudice as to 
racial origin, and from the mere fact of profession of Mo- 



2i6 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

hammedanism were recognized just as fully as Ottoman 
Turks as if they had descended from the parent stock. 

The social phenomenon of Western Europe, where the 
cohesive force of Christianity brought together people of 
Germanic, Celtic, and Roman origin, found its counterpart 
in this new national development of Mohammedan ortho- 
doxy. It took place, too, just at a time when the old sup- 
porters of Islam, the Arabs, the Persians, and the Berbers 
had entered upon a stage of decadence. As a political 
power Islam was going to pieces, when new vigor was in- 
fused into it by a fresh and warlike race of barbarians, who, 
as convinced converts with all the fanaticism of a recently 
acquired faith, restored the simpler traditions of the Koran 
that had been lost or weakened, wherever the disciples of 
Mohammed were brought in contact with civilizing influ- 
ences or wherever, in their mutual divisions, they had made 
terms of alliance with Christian rulers. 

Predatory warfare was the training which gave the Ot- 
toman Turks their irresistible power as conquerors; they 
were organized as an army disciplined and ever ready to 
strike. No better field for such training could have been 
found than the territory of Anatolia when the empire of 
the Seldjouks disappeared, and a condition of affairs arose, 
of which Northern Spain, at a somewhat earlier period, is 
a parallel instance of prevailing anarchy and local turmoil. 

Some of the semi-independent fortresses under Greek 
commanders, who presided over narrow territories in the 
same way as the feudal seigneurs of Western Europe, were 
reduced by Osman. With these additions to his domains 
he had no hesitation in proclaiming himself an independent 
prince on the death of Ala-ed-Din. Soon afterward he 
conquered all the region near the river Songora, which 
gave approach to the sea coast and so offered an oppor- 
tunity for equipping piratical expeditions that terrorized 
the islands and shores of the Greek Empire and the Latin 
states of the East. At this time the emirate under Osman 
covered the greater part of the ancient provinces of Galatia 
and Bithynia. 



THE OTTOMANS 217 

To this position of mastery must be ascribed the rapid 
acquisition of leadership by Osman. The territory he now 
governed was close to the important centers of Greek rule. 
Broussa, Nicaea, and Nicomedia were the specially selected 
points of attack in this effort to extend Moslem power over 
Northwestern Asia, which still remained in Christian hands. 
The prizes were great and the religious merit considerable; 
there was enough, then, to attract the most valiant war- 
riors who joined the army of Osman from other emirates. 
Even mercenary troops of Greek, Slavic, and Latin origin 
served under the Turkish banner. 

The plan of conquest showed skilful and cautious strategy. 
Osman adopted the policy of overshadowing the great 
fortresses of the Greek Empire by placing near them strong- 
holds of his own garrisoned with men ready to surprise 
their opponents at the first favorable opportunity. Broussa 
soon found itself within the grasp of the Turk. There 
were two forts dominating its very gates, one on the east, 
the other on the west. An important town near it, Ed- 
renos, was taken when Osman's son, Ourkhan, forced the 
city to capitulate, the inhabitants being given, in return for 
30,000 pieces of gold, the right to retire with their prop- 
erty. The governor became a convert to Islam — a detail 
which is typical of the Turkish conquests. These new 
supporters found it to their advantage to change their 
allegiance. Such cases are often mentioned in these early 
years of the expansion of the Ottoman emirate, and they 
are indicative of a well-devised policy to sap the founda- 
tions of resistance. 

Another even more striking example of the results of a 
change of allegiance from Christianity to Mohammedanism 
is found in the case of Mikhal-Koeze (Michael with the 
pointed beard), the Greek governor of the castle, who, after 
becoming a prisoner of war, was most kindly treated by 
Osman. The bonds of friendship between the two grew so 
strong that Mikhal embraced Islamism and signalized him- 
self by his fidelity as an ally and subordinate officer. He 
IS the ancestor of the family of Mikhal Oghli (sons of 



2i8 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

Michael), who in a long line of descent held the command 
of the irregular troops in the Turkish army. 

The close of Osman's career had nothing to record in the 
way of an exploit equal to the capture of Broussa. In 
1326 the conqueror died and was buried in the city, the 
possession of which marked the chief success of his re- 
markable reign. Here in after generations were shown the 
chaplet of rough-ground wood, the enormous drum given 
him by Ali-ed-Din, and the great carved double-edged sword 
wielded by the founder and champion of the Ottoman Em- 
pire. But the rapidity and importance of Osman's con- 
quests had not changed the tastes of the tribal chieftain ; all 
that he left to his heirs were horses, oxen, some sheep, 
a spoon, a salt cellar, an embroidered kaftan, and a 
turban. 

Ourkhan, who followed Osman, proved that he had in- 
herited his father's capacity for war and statesmanship. 
His brother was made vizier, with special charge of the 
organization of the army, which, in its various arms, pre- 
served for centuries the marks of a military intelligence far 
superior to that shown in the organization of the armies 
of medieval Europe. The regular troops were divided into 
janitschars (foot soldiers), and spahis (horsemen), while 
the irregular forces had the same two divisions under the 
names of akindji and azabs. 

The advance of conquest still went on upon a large scale. 
Soon Nicomedia, the ancient capital of Diocletian, sur- 
rendered to the Turks. In a battle at Maldepe the Greek 
Emperor Andronicus III suffered a defeat that led to the 
loss of all the Asiatic possessions of the Greeks. Nicaea, 
the second city of the empire, was obliged to yield to the 
conqueror, who gave the inhabitants the same terms as 
those accorded to the people of Broussa. The moral effect 
of this blow was immense, because Nicsea had been the 
starting point for the revival of Greek civilization and 
political rule after the taking of Constantinople by the 
Latins. It was also sacred as the seat of two great ecu- 
menical councils. Now, the church where the Nicene Creed 



THE OTTOMANS 219 

was proclaimed, became a mosque, and the city, with its 
name transformed into the Turkish disguise of Isnik, lost 
its historical identity. (1330.) 

After the seizure of some small seaports on the Black 
Sea and the Propontis, the whole of Bithynia fell into 
Turkish hands. There were only the narrow straits between 
the Osmanlis and Europe; on the Asiatic side the only 
places which still belonged to the Greek Empire were 
Scutari and Philadelphia. As Ourkhan's dominions ex- 
panded, he followed his father's precedent in dividing the 
land into sandjaks (banners). Nicsea was intrusted, on ac- 
count of its importance, to the eldest son, Souliman, who 
then, on his own account, resolved to attempt the passage 
into Europe. In his adventure he was accompanied only 
by a handful of companions; two rafts were constructed 
of the trunks of trees joined by thongs of leather, and 
with these a landing was made at Tzympe, which was seized 
without trouble, as the fortifications of the place had 
fallen into ruins (1356). 

Not long after this event an earthquake shook the walls 
of Gallipoli and other neighboring towns, a misfortune 
which made them all an easy prey for Souliman's officers. 
When the Greek Emperor protested, Ourkhan answered 
that his latest conquests were due, not to his arms, but 
to the will of God that had been revealed in the earth- 
quake. Gallipoli was the key to Europe, and it was not 
given up. Using it as a base, the Osmanlis commenced to 
make marauding expeditions into the adjacent country. 



II 

MURAD I 

There followed in succession to Ourkhan, not Souliman, 
who died in one of the raids into Thrace, but Murad I, 
whose mother was a Greek. In some respects he was a 
greater leader than his father, Ourkhan; he is spoken of 



220 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

in the chronicles as eloquent, devoted to justice, and a 
strict disciplinarian. At the same time he was beloved 
by his troops because of his generosity. Although he had 
no education, not even the ability to read and write, he was 
known as a great builder of mosques, schools, and hos- 
pitals. When he had a document to sign he dipped four 
lingers in the ink, and, keeping them as far apart as pos- 
sible, impressed them on the paper ; the impression so made 
was worked up artistically into the imperial Osmanli seal. 
His success in warfare was due not only to his own valor, 
but also to the number of able commanders who con- 
ducted his campaigns under his directions. 

The European successes of his elder brother could not 
be followed up imm.ediately, because the notable victories of 
the Osmanlis had excited the jealousy of the remaining 
Seldjouk emirs in Asia. Ourkhan had himself warred with 
the Prince of Karasi and so been able to add Mysia with 
Pergamum to his territories. Now Murad's reign was 
opened by a contest with the emir of Karamania, another 
Ala-ed-Din, who stirred up many of the Osmanli depend- 
encies to revolt. The city of Angora was the center of 
this insurrection. Murad overcame the rebels, placed a 
garrison in Angora, and adopted a policy of gradual ab- 
sorption in order to keep the Seldjouk emirates from form- 
ing a coalition against him. One was ceded outright and 
a large part of another became the marriage portion of 
the wife of Bajesid, son of Murad. The situation in Asia, 
owing to the restlessness of the remaining emirs, who 
represented another branch of the Turkish stock, continued 
to be a source of difficulty for many years, and the final 
and complete conquest of the whole of Anatolia only took 
place when the European Empire of the Osmanlis was an 
accomplished fact. 

The armies of Murad had now occupied Thrace; hence 
they were brought into immediate contact with the two 
strong Slavic nations on the Balkan peninsula, the Bul- 
garians and the Servians. These South Slavic peoples, after 
centuries of struggle for supremacy with the Eastern Em- 



THE OTTOMANS 221 

pire, had been overpowered by the superior wealth, strategy, 
and civilization of the rulers of Constantinople in the be- 
ginning of the eleventh century. But the Latin conquest 
of Constantinople made it easy for them to regain the 
ground they had lost. In the course of the struggle be- 
tween the Byzantines and the Crusaders, the movements to- 
wards independence among the Servians and Bulgarians 
were facilitated. After the year 1261 accessions of terri- 
tory were made by both branches of the Slavic race. Be- 
sides contesting possession of Balkan territory with the 
Magyars they warred among themselves for the acquisition 
of lands in the Maritza basin and along the rivers Strouma 
and Vardar. 

In this rivalry the Servians secured the greatest prizes 
in the way of territorial expansion. By the end of the thir- 
teenth century they had reached the sea coast, and had 
occupied the region around the two lakes Ochrida and 
Prespa. About the same time the movement to expand 
their frontiers at the expense of the Greek Empire again 
became marked. Northern Albania was conquered and ad- 
ditional lands were seized in Macedonia. These successes 
led to a coalition between the Bulgars and the Greeks; 
but this scheme to block the Servians failed. There was 
a great battle at Velbouje, at which the Bulgarian army was 
completely crushed. The plan of the Servians was to 
secure the alliance of their rivals by a marriage between 
their leader, Stephen Douchan, and the sister of Tsar 
Michael, the head of the Bulgars. 

Douchan is often called the Charlemagne of Servia, but the 
title is only true if measured by an unrealized dream. His 
reign marks the limit of Servian ambition; he looked for- 
ward to an imperial position under which the Slavs would 
become the heirs of the dignities and domains of the Byzan- 
tine Empire, a position they deserved because of the in- 
ability of the Greeks to defend their lands from the ad- 
vancing power of the Turk. For a time the dream seemed 
on the point of realization, as Douchan's various campaigns 
against the Greeks were successful. The alliance with the 



222 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

Bulgars was maintained unbroken, and only a very small 
part of the European possessions of the Emperors at Con- 
stantinople remained intact. Thrace and a strip of Asia 
Minor was all that was left; there was every reason to 
urge Douchan to proclaim his overlordship in the reg- 
ular way. Accordingly, on April i6, 1346, Douchan 
was solemnly anointed Emperor (Tsar) of Servia 
and Roumania by the Servian Patriarch Joannikos, 
at Uskup. 

The next step was the conquest of the imperial city on 
the Bosphorus. This could not be effected without a fleet ; 
neither Thessalonika nor Constantinople could be taken as 
long as their ports were open. Douchan turned to the 
Venetians for help, but they refused to encourage the 
formation of a new great power on the Mediterranean. 
Besides, the Turks now barred the way, for Gallipoli had 
been garrisoned. The Osmanlis, therefore, held the key 
to the Dardanelles. Undeterred, however, by these changes, 
Douchan girded himself for a final attack on Constantinople, 
when death overtook him suddenly on the 20th of Decem- 
ber, 1355. 

His successor, Ourach, was only nineteen years old, a 
young man of mild character, with none of the stern quali- 
ties needed to carry out the warlike plans of his father. His 
vassal lords had not lived long enough under a centralized 
system to understand its advantages even under a weak 
ruler. Without the strong personality of Douchan, the 
empire and the titular dignity of Tsar were only shadows. 
Less fortunate than the tribe of Osman, where the line 
from father to son maintained in unbroken succession under 
strong personal rule the clear-sighted aims of the founder, 
the Servians could not resist the forces of disintegration. 
Their country was mountainous, and hence the people were 
kept apart in small, isolated communities. There was 
no longer a vigorous leader to resist the centrifugal tend- 
encies imposed by petty ambitions and jealousies; and 
only for ten years after Douchan's death did the external 
form of his empire last. As a barrier against the Turkish 



THE OTTOMANS 223 

conquerors in Europe the Servians proved utterly inef- 
fective. 

With the Slavs eliminated the brunt of resistance nat- 
urally fell upon the Greeks; but they were now only an 
emaciated remnant of a great and long enduring empire that 
had worn out the Arab and Saracen and had held the Slav 
at bay. After the fall of the Latin rule at Constantinople 
(1261), the city became the capital of the reconstructed 
Eastern Empire ; but the scale of this restoration was much 
reduced from its original grandeur. There were four 
groups of imperial territories : the Asiatic possessions that 
had been controlled from Nicsea, economically important 
as trade centers, but not great in extent; in Europe, the 
capital and Thrace ; some towns to the North, such as Ad- 
rianople, a part of Macedonia, the peninsula of Galfipoli, 
Chalcidice, and a part of Thessaly; certain islands in the 
^gean, Rhodes, Lesbos, Samothrace, Imbros, and the Pelo- 
ponnesus in Greece. 

These possessions, the feeble remnants of the realm once 
ruled by Basil the Macedonian, were surrounded by lands 
inhabited by numerous races. There were the Prankish 
lands in Greece, the Venetians in the ^gean, an inde- 
pendent Greek sovereignty in Epirus, Catalans in Thessaly, 
Genoese in the Black and ^gean Seas, and the parts im- 
mediately adjacent to Constantinople itself; the Seldjouk 
sultans at Iconium, and the autonomous empire of Trebi- 
zond. There were also the Slavic peoples in the Balkan 
peninsula, not to mention the more distant Christian king- 
doms of Armenia and Georgia. 

As a military power the revived Greek Empire was 
pathetically feeble. Its last great leader in war was Michael 
VIII, who had retaken Constantinople from the Latins, a 
conquest on a slight scale, since the Latins were even weaker 
than their opponents. The measure of Greek offensive 
is attested by the inability of any Greek Emperor to re- 
take the Asiatic provinces from the Turk, to annex the 
Empire of Trebizond, to resist the Slavs in the Balkans, 
or to reoccupy the islands of the ^gean and drive the 



224 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

Franks from Greece. Even in the interior there was no 
effective administration. In every Greek city there were 
colonies of Itahan merchants, either Genoese or Venetian, 
who formed independent communities under their own 
podesta. The army was filled with foreign contingents, 
who were not even mercenary troops, because the Empire 
could not afford to hire soldiers. They were auxiliary 
forces, organized as complete military units under their 
own natural chief, and were a constant menace. When they 
saw fit, they pillaged the country and sometimes fought 
among themselves. They were under no kind of control 
from the central or local authorities; within their own 
camps on the frontiers, in the provinces, even under the 
walls of the capital itself, they obeyed their own com- 
manders and not the Emperor. 

One of the most radical changes for the worse in the 
revived Greek Empire, a change that marked the con- 
trast with the heroic period of Byzantine military enterprise, 
was the lack of a fleet. For his naval operations the Em- 
peror depended on the Venetians or Genoese, a most un- 
satisfactory arrangement, for, owing to the jealousy of 
these two commercial states, if one were the ally of Con- 
stantinople, the other was certain to be on the opposite 
side. In 1296 the Venetians, after defeating their rivals at 
sea, laid siege to the Pera and Galata sections of Con- 
stantinople, the seat of the Genoese colony, and in setting 
fire to the quarter destroyed many Greek houses. Later on, 
the Genoese revenged themselves by massacring the Vene- 
tian residents of Constantinople. 

The anarchy was increased when, owing to rival claim- 
ants to the throne, open civil war broke out, as it did fre- 
quently in the course of the fourteenth century. Canta- 
cuzene, an official in the imperial palace, who became rival 
Emperor, while Anna of Saxony was regent during the 
minority of her son, John V, after the death of his father, 
Andronicus III, allied himself with the Servians and with 
the Seldjouk emir of Konia. Anna tried to strengthen her 
side by calling upon Ourkhan, the Osmanli Sultan. In the 



THE OTTOMANS 225 

war that followed the Turks were authorized to seize the 
citizens of the empire, and the rival governments placed 
at the disposition of their Mohammedan allies seaports 
and vessels. The captives taken were sent to Asia and 
sold as slaves in the Turkish emirates. 

The various enemies of the Empire used this time of civil 
strife as a favorable opportunity for seizing its territory. 
Stephen Douchan conquered and annexed most of Mace- 
donia, and, as their part of the spoil, the Genoese acquired 
Chios and commenced a blockade of Constantinople, the 
defense of which was intrusted to other Italians under the 
command of Facciolati. This leader deserted the cause of 
the regent Anna, and admitted Cantacuzene into the capital. 
An arrangement was now patched up by which Cantacuzene 
was to be Emperor until John V reached the age of twenty- 
five years. 

Even now Cantacuzene's troubles as ruler were not over ; 
his plan to form an independent navy recruited from his 
own subjects and his desire to do away with the com- 
mercial monopoly of the Genoese led to a war of five years, 
1348- 1 352. Cantacuzene's Venetian allies were defeated 
under the walls of Constantinople, with the result that the 
Greek Emperor was obliged to make peace under most 
disadvantageous terms. Not long after this disaster civil 
war broke out again. Souliman, Ourkhan's son, was a 
subsidized ally of Cantacuzene, and thousands of the in- 
habitants of the Empire were deported by the Turks to be 
sold as slaves. 

The lessons of these wars were not lost upon the Turkish 
auxiliaries who were allowed to play such a conspicuous 
and decisive role by both sides; they became acquainted 
with the country in which they had served, knew its roads, 
cities, and inhabitants. All this information was put to 
good use by them when they crossed the Bosphorus to fight 
for their own interests and to dispossess their former em- 
ployers at Constantinople. 

From the point of view of its economic status the Empire 
was in no condition to withstand an invasion. As terri- 



226 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

tory was lost the proceeds of direct taxation fell off; 
increases in the customs duties were opposed and blocked 
by the Genoese and Venetians ; the government lived from 
hand to mouth. In 1306 when the Catalan mercenaries had 
to be paid, Andronicus II put an end to the wheat mo- 
nopoly exercised by the Italians. Another characteristic ex- 
pedient of this weak government was the debasement of 
the coinage. But all the ordinary schemes for raising 
money must have failed by the middle of the century, for 
we find Anna of Saxony using the treasures of churches 
to pay for the war against Cantacuzene. Indeed, her court 
had reached a condition of extreme penury in 1347, when, 
at a coronation it was found that the imperial jewels had 
disappeared. The splendid buildings of the city were fast 
going to pieces. In Santa Sophia there were large cracks, 
which necessitated the erection of two of the existing great 
supporting buttresses that have enabled it to survive to 
our time the frequent earthquakes that disturb the city. 
In the absence of a centralized government the local ad- 
ministration lost all resemblance to the admirably con- 
structed system of the earlier period of Byzantine rule 
when, as contrasted with Western Europe, it still preserved 
the efficiency and smoothness of Roman governmental tra- 
ditions. The local authorities lived on the country, un- 
controlled from Constantinople, except irregularly and in- 
effectively. 

In reality, under the name of empire, all varieties of local 
organizations existed side by side; some places were ruled 
by petty tyrants, while others were municipal republics. 
In the important port of Thessalonika, Italian precedents 
were closely followed. Here there were four classes of 
citizens, the notables, the clergy, the bourgeois, and in the 
lowest class the " populari." Each class enjoyed complete 
autonomy. They were organized in trade corporations, 
had their own system of justice, and finally got supreme 
control of the town, turning it into a democracy under the 
presidency of their metropolitan. When Cantacuzene un- 
dertook to bring the rebels to reason, the archbishop, in 



THE OTTOMANS 227 

pleading the cause of the city-state, declared that his re- 
public was based on equality and justice, and said that its 
laws were better than those of the Republic of Plato. 

There was another factor in this state of anarchy, to 
wit, the religious dissensions, due to the willingness of some 
of the clergy to accept union with the Papacy and to in- 
troduce Latin customs, an attitude dating from the time of 
the Latin Empire. Apart from these questions of ecclesi- 
astical policy, there was much discussion of theological 
subtilties concerning the existence of a supernatural illumi- 
nation in the soul, a controversy which divided the Church 
and the imperial court. This trouble was settled by a synod, 
which decreed that those espousing the new doctrine should 
be imprisoned. 

In a land so situated and so far fallen from its earlier 
estate, the rapid conquests of the Osmanlis appear as due 
not so much to the valor and intelligence of the adherents 
of Islam as to the inability of the Christians to act or 
work together. The one security of the Empire was the 
comparative weakness of the Turkish sea power. The Otto- 
man ships were good enough for piratical expeditions, but 
there was no Turkish fleet at all able to cope with the 
navies of Genoa or Venice. 

At the very beginning of Murad's accession, a consistent 
plan of attack was inaugurated, designed to cut off Con- 
stantinople from its "hinterland"; the objective being the 
trade road between the capital and Adrianople. Several 
of the important points on this line were taken, Murad 
making his residence temporarily near Demotika. Accord- 
ing to Turkish custom, each spring brought a new expedi- 
tion and a further enlargement of the existing boundaries. 
The siege of Adrianople itself soon began. (1360.) The 
Greek chronicles speak of its fall being due to a betrayal of 
a secret path used by peasants inside the walls to get to their 
fields. But the Turkish annals tell of an engagement 
between the garrison and the Osmanli soldiers. In the city 
Murad took up his residence, being attracted to it by its 
importance as a trading place frequented by Venetians, 



228 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

Genoese, Florentines, and Catalans, as well as by Turks 
and Greeks. 

Following soon the course of the river Maritza, on which 
Adrianople stands, the Turkish invaders moved farther into 
the land until they came to Philippopolis, which had been 
taken by the Bulgars not long before. But the Slavs 
showed no greater capacity than the Greeks for united ac- 
tion, and the town was taken from them without difficulty. 
Other places were added, including Berrhoea on the Haemus, 
and this whole section of country for some time made 
up the northermost borders of Ottoman dominion in 
Europe. 

In the south the same kind of successes took place ; again 
a trade route was selected, this time the road to Thessa- 
lonika, and a considerable stretch of the territory through 
which it passed was annexed. In one place the sea coast 
was reached at a point opposite the Island of Samothrace. 
Murad returned now to Broussa, interrupting a farther ad- 
vance towards Trnova and Sofia, places in the hands of the 
Servians, whose power in war he respected and feared 
more than that of their allied race, the Bulgars. 

The menace caused by the Ottoman conquests was now 
being appreciated in Western Europe, where, through the 
preaching of a crusade by Urban V, a league was formed 
between Louis of Anjou, King of Hungary, and several 
of the most powerful princes of the Balkan peninsula, both 
Roumanian and Slav, for the purpose of driving out the 
Turks from their newly acquired European possessions. 
With an army* of 60,000 men the Christian leaders reached 
the river Maritza, two days' journey from Adrianople. 
Murad was in Asia, besieging a Greek city on the Pro- 
pontis, but he was not needed, since a small detachment 
of the army of his general, Lala-Schahin, came in contact 
with the Christians near Kermianon, and put them to flight 
in a panic, in which the two Servian leaders lost their Hves. 

(1371.) 

This victory is set down in the Servian records as a great 
national disaster, and deservedly so. It en.ded their re- 



THE OTTOMANS 229 

sistance, and it handed over to the Turks the rest of Thrace, 
Bulgaria, and a part of Servia. Significant of the impres- 
sion made by the conquest was the action of the people of 
Ragusa, who signed a treaty of peace, inspired by a desire 
to gain commercial advantages from the new Turkish con- 
quests. They agreed to pay an annual tribute of 500 golden 
ducats, and thus they inaugurated a policy imitated by many 
of their stronger neighbors, who preferred to make a good 
bargain with the Ottomans rather than try the fortunes 
of war under the auspices of rival Christian states, whose 
political aggrandizement, in case a victory were won over 
the infidel, was dreaded even more than the expansion of 
an alien race. 

Yet the theory of a united Christendom was maintained 
despite its pitiable outcome in the Balkans. Elsewhere 
there were brilliant feats of arms, but they were isolated, 
and being directed by no consistent plan, proved of no last- 
ing advantage. Peter of Cyprus, a representative of the 
Latin dynasty which had held the island since the days of 
the earlier Crusades, regarded himself as the guardian of 
Christian hopes in the Orient because of his titular dignity 
of King of Jerusalem. He took Alexandria in 1365, and 
helped by Rhodes, Genoa, and contingents sent by the Pope, 
he later took Satalieh (AttaHa), a place situated in one 
of the Seldjouk emirates. Some advantages were gained, 
too, on the coast of Syria. 

There was little chance of permanent success so long as 
the princes and states of the West with their divergent 
interests, dynastic or commercial, confronted such a solidly 
compacted power as that raised up by Osman. The Turks 
had a single aim, simple and direct, and they kept ham- 
mering away at their enemies, putting in telling blows at 
the right moment and the right place. On the other hand, 
the Christian cause suffered both from the leadership of the 
Papacy, with its rigid insistence on establishing Western ec- 
clesiastical rule in the East, and from the sordid self-seeking 
of the Genoese and Venetians. From both points of view the 
conquest of the Greek Empire was generally regarded as a 



230 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

necessary preliminary for making headway in the restora- 
tion of Christian control over the Holy Land. 

The hard case of the Eastern Emperor, whose few re- 
maining possessions were in the fast-closing grip of the 
Ottoman Sultan, is sketched indelibly in the narrative 
of the Western journey of John V, who, while the Turks 
were absorbing the Slavic lands about his empire, visited 
Rome to ask the Pope's aid. In the desperate state of his 
resources he had borrowed at Venice, at exorbitant rates 
of interest, money to pay the expenses of his trip. On his 
return empty-handed he was stayed at Venice by his credi- 
tors, and the republic put him in prison. His son, Androni- 
cus, associated with his father in the Empire, had been left 
behind at Constantinople. When the Emperor appealed to 
him for aid^ the reply came that the treasury was empty. 
The unfortunate sovereign appealed with more success to 
a younger son, Manuel, who mortgaged his estates and en- 
abled his father to return home. 

In May, 1372, the Pope again took the initiative in or- 
ganizing an anti-Ottoman league by writing to the Republic 
of Venice and the King of Hungary a letter which de- 
scribed the achievements of the '' Saracens " in Thrace, 
their defeat of the " Servian lords in Greek lands," and the 
prospects of a farther advance of the infidel towards the 
Adriatic. Bad news had come from Greece, too, of the 
possibility of the Turkish invaders penetrating towards the 
south. A congress of the Balkan states was called to meet 
at Thebes, a place under Prankish and Roman Catholic 
rule; and it was a significant fact that no member of the 
Eastern Church was asked to be present. A gathering of 
such a restricted character could do nothing. There were 
at Thebes only a few representatives of the small Latin 
principalities in Continental Greece and the islands. Im- 
mediately after this gathering the Byzantine clergy put forth 
in Constantinople a formal protest against the See of Rome 
and appealed for help to the Knights of Rhodes. 

Peter of Cyprus had been murdered by his barons in 
1369, and the island had fallen into the hands of the 



THE OTTOMANS 231 

Genoese. In 1374 the small Prankish kingdom of Armenia, 
an enclave between the Turkish and Mongol lands in Asia, 
had come to an end with the capture of Sis. In 1378 
the great church schism in the West brought about a 
situation that prevented the Papacy from taking further 
thought for what was now left of the Christian East. Pour 
years later Louis of Hungary died, leaving his kingdom, a 
land especially interested in preventing the extension of 
Turkish power in Europe, a prey to a civil war induced by 
the division he had made of his dominions between his 
two daughters. There was no longer even the semblance 
of a chance that European forces would unite on a large 
scale to resist the Turks. The contest was left to the weak 
and divided efforts of the small Prankish states in Greece; 
to the Bulgars and Servians in the Balkans, who followed 
only desultory, haphazard methods, and to the Greeks of 
the Empire, who were living on the traditions of a great 
past. 

Meanwhile, the Osmanlis were not disturbed by ques- 
tions of religious orthodoxy, and they were also spared 
the necessity of calling congresses to decide the next step 
in their stealthy progress. In 1372, under the personal 
supervision of Murad, expeditions were made by which the 
whole of Roumelia to the Black Sea was not only made 
subject to his rule, but Moslem families were settled in 
the conquered lands and a regularly ordered system of local 
military government provided. Then came the turn of the 
few remaining provinces still held by the Greek Emperor. 
When Vizya (in Turkish, Wissa), an important city, fell 
into Murad's hands, John, whose bitter necessities had 
forced him to pay tribute to the Turk and even to furnish 
a contingent for military service, tried to recover his lost 
city. A punitive expedition appeared in consequence near 
Constantinople, and some strong castles were annexed; but 
nothing near the sea coast was taken, for the Sultan had 
no desire to bring down upon himself the ill will of the 
Venetians and other Italians, who would not tolerate any 
interference in their control of the important waterways 



232 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

near Constantinople. For the same reason, though con- 
stant additions were being made to Turkish territory close 
to Thessalonika, no attempt was made to close in on the 
city for fear of complications with the Latin powers, com- 
plications which might excite such an outbreak of the cru- 
sading ardor that the Italian navies might be used. 

Considerably more important were the operations of the 
Sultan's lieutenant, Lala-Schahin. There were internal dis- 
sensions between the Bulgars and the Roumanian Layko, a 
feudatory of the King of Hungary. Allying himself with 
Layko, -Lala-Schahin succeeded in capturing Sofia, and for 
a while even Nisch was occupied. No attempt was as yet 
made by the Slavs after their earlier defeat to protect them- 
selves on a large scale. At this point the method and aim of 
the pacific penetration policy of the Sultan, which alternated 
with carefully devised methods of military aggression, can 
be seen in the picturesque story of the plot entered into 
by Andronicus, the son of John the Emperor, and Sands- 
chi, the son of Murad, to take the lives and the crowns of 
their respective fathers. The conspiracy was detected and 
defeated, and the young Turkish prince died from the 
effect of having hot vinegar poured in his eyes. Andronicus, 
escaping from his prison, after the common Byzantine 
penalty of blinding his sight had been, perhaps intentionally, 
inflicted with such mildness that he regained it, made a 
treaty with the Genoese and with Murad. He agreed to 
confer special privileges on the Turks if they would help 
to secure for him the imperial crown. For three years the 
usurpation lasted, and John and his faithful son Manuel 
were only restored to their rights by Murad's friendly con- 
nivance, which was secured by the promise of 3000 ducats 
a year. Of less value must have been the additional agree- 
ment that the Byzantine princes would serve in the Sultan's 
army. 

Andronicus had fled to the Turkish lines and, through 
the intervention of Murad, he received later Thessalonika 
as an appanage. He was aided by the Genoese, while his 
father had as allies the Venetians, a division of interests 



THE OTTOMANS 233 

out of which grew the celebrated naval war, called that of 
Chioggia, between the two rival cities of Italy. Murad pre- 
ferred to keep quiet while the two Italian naval powers were 
in force in his neighborhood, and he devoted himself with 
much sagacity to fishing in the troubled waters of the 
Asiatic emirates, with results both in war and diplomacy 
that were eminently satisfactory. 

In 1387 after there had been such successes of the Turks 
to record as the surrender of Monastir, and Prilep, and 
Schtip, and even the temporary seizure of Thessalonika, the 
Servians undertook, under the direction of a feudal lord, 
Lazar, to organize a systematic plan of resistance. Lazar 
was first aided by a Bosnian king, Tourtko, who had, how- 
ever, ambitious designs on certain lands under the Hun- 
garian crown, designs that soon robbed his promised co- 
operation of its influence. Schischman of Bulgaria was 
drawn into the league, and in Lazar's army there appeared 
also contingents of Albanians and Roumanians standing side 
by side with the Slavs. The crisis was fully appreciated by 
Murad. He summoned new troops from Asia, and all the 
greatest generals took part in the campaign, in addition to 
his two sons, Bajesid and Jakab. The decisive battle was 
fought on ground that was part of Lazar's own domains 
near Prischtina, on the wide plains called Kossowopolje. 
Murad was surrounded by his band of Janitschars ; to hold 
back the enemy the camels of the Asiatic troops were drawn 
up in front. The Christians were confident in their superior 
number, for they had 200,000 men under arms ready to 
begin the attack. 

From a contemporary account comes the narrative of 
the death of the Sultan. It is there told how ten young 
men of distinguished birth, bound by oath to stand by one 
another, succeeded in forcing their way to the tent of 
Murad. One of these, Mulasch Obilitsch, managed to in- 
flict two fatal wounds on the neck and body of the aged 
ruler. But this successful stroke did not end the fight, for 
Bajesid, who was renowned for the rapidity and daring of 
his generalship, drove his wing of the Ottoman army into 



234 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

the Christian ranks, broke through them, and put them to 
flight at the very moment they thought themselves vic- 
torious. It is said that in the panic Lazar lost his life; 
probably he was captured and subsequently sacrificed in re- 
venge for the murder of Murad. (June' 15, 1389.) 

Both armies withdrew after the battle. Murad's fate 
made him a martyr to the faith, and he is one of the 
Sahibs or Elect of Islam. Even the Greeks praise his char- 
acter as being benevolent towards the conquered, whom he 
understood how to win over to his side after he had con- 
quered them by the irresistible force of his arms. He laid 
the foundations of the Moslem state, adapting it shrewdly 
for rule over conquered populations. They were accepted 
as tenants of the new owners of the soil, paying tithes. The 
Sultan himself received the Kharadsch or tribute money. 
At the same time the subject races retained their faith, their 
customs, their church, their courts, and their aristocracy. 
The warrior class was made up of native Turks and some 
renegades. These became the sole owners of the land and 
had to take their place in the regular yearly campaigns. 
There was, besides, a standing army of young foot soldiers 
composed of captives taken in war, the Janitschar class, who 
looked up to the Sultan as their father. For administrative 
progress there was a corps of officials, whose functions de- 
scended from father to son, composed of " Begs." At the 
top of this beaurocracy was a Beglerbeg for each half of the 
kingdom, one for Asia and one for Europe, and a Wesir or 
Pascha, the equivalent in Turkish of the former word, which 
is Arabic. The administrative divisions under the Begs 
were called Sandjaks (flags) because these were carried 
by the Begs as emblems of their authority. 

The battle of Kossovo, in which both opposing armies 
lost their leaders, became in Servian folklore and poetry a 
source of inspiration of the kind that among Romance peo- 
ples gathers about the defeat of Charles the Great in the 
Pyrenees and the death of Roland. The incidents of the 
heroic theme take up the tragedy of the battle; Slavic im- 
provisers sing of the death of Lazar, of his father-in-law, 



THE OTTOMANS ' 235 

the aged King, and his nine brothers-in-law. Mulasch, the 
slayer of Murad, who met his death in the flight, is not 
passed over, nor the 12,000 infidels who perished. Like 
Murad, Lazar, the " Servian crown of gold," is celebrated 
as a martyr of his faith, a hero who went voluntarily to his 
death. The legend tells how St. Elias, in the form of a 
falcon, came from the Holy City of Jerusalem, bringing 
him a letter from the Mother of God, in which he was 
offered the choice of the heavenly empire or dominion 
over the earth. Lazar made the choice which gave him 
the spiritual kingdom. 



Ill 

BAJESID 

The first act of Bajesid's accession was the murder of 
his younger brother, whom he summoned to his presence 
and caused to be strangled. This deed left Bajesid the sole 
representative of the house of Osman; there was no rival 
now for him to fear. He wished to stand alone as creator 
of his own statecraft, for he refused to respect any of 
the arrangements or conventions made by Murad. His 
own ideal was foreign to the loose feudalized system pre- 
viously established; he desired to clear away all the de- 
pendent dynasties, and to substitute for them officers of 
his own, directly controlled by him. 

The first important military operation of the new reign 
was directed against Mircea, a Roumanian lord, who had 
seized and occupied Nicopolis, lately surrendered to Ali- 
Pascha, Murad's vizier, by Schischman, before the battle of 
Kossovo. All the vassals were called under arms to fol- 
low the Sultan, who crossed the Danube to where Mircea 
was awaiting his attack in a position difficult of access on 
account of roads and swamps. No details of the fight are 
given, but Bajesid was the victor. ('October 10, 1394.) 
Mircea fled to the Carpathians. 



236 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

As one result of their victory the Turks left Bucharest 
in the hands of an Ottoman garrison under the direction 
of a Roumanian Boyar Vlad, who was appointed to take 
the place of Mircea, because of the latter's failure to per- 
form the obligations of a faithful vassal, though he had 
met with generous treatment from Bajesid after the battle 
of Kossovo. He was not present at the battle itself, but 
rendered himself liable to punishment by sending armed 
contingents of his own men to help the Christian cause. 
He had been captured and exiled to Broussa; but he was 
released on condition of paying a small tribute, and re- 
tained his right of sovereignty over his subjects. More 
remarkable still, Bajesid had undertaken not to permit 
any Turks to establish themselves in Wallachia, or to found 
mosques in Mircea's country. By presuming on this favor- 
able and exceptional treatment, Mircea again had brought 
himself into the status of an exile. 

Sigismund of Hungary saw the necessity of helping his 
unfortunate neighbor Mircea with the Turks so close at 
hand. Moreover, the Hungarian ruler's relations with 
Western Europe, through his connection with the house of 
Luxembourg, and his inheritance from Prince Louis of 
Anjou, placed him in a good position to appeal to the 
warlike lords and knights of France to aid him against 
infidel aggression. He turned also to the Republic of 
Venice as a partner in the undertaking, but the prudent 
merchants of that commonwealth showed no immediate in- 
terest in the projected crusade. 

The movement initiated from Hungary put heart into the 
Byzantines, who, because of the change from the mild 
Murad to the relentless Bajesid, were now hard pressed 
in the small corner of territory still left them. There was 
moral depression as well, for Manuel H, when made co- 
Emperor with his aged father John, had been obliged to 
accompany the Sultan in all his campaigns with a con- 
tingent. This obligation revealed the desperate straits of 
the Greek Empire, especially as the contingent numbered 
only a hundred men. One Greek city, Philadelphia, the 



THE OTTOMANS 237 

single imperial possession in Asia Minor, had been attacked 
by Bajesid because the citizens refused to receive a Turkish 
garrison, though John had previously agreed to surrender 
it to Murad. Among the other vassals who were called to 
take part in this campaign were Stephen, Prince of the 
Servians, and Manuel, the Byzantine Emperor. As a 
further sign of dependence on the Sultan's will, who seemed 
bent on devising schemes to humiliate the miserable Greek 
prince, Manuel had been forced to help to repair the 
fortifications of Gallipoli, and also to cooperate with the 
Turks in their preparations to send expeditions to Attica 
and some of the islands of the ^gean. When John V be- 
gan to restore some of the ruined fortifications around the 
imperial city, Bajesid ordered him to desist, threatening, if 
the command were not obeyed, to deprive Manuel of his 
sight, for the heir, and co-Emperor, was, as usual, doing 
duty as a vassal in one of the Turkish military expedi- 
tions. 

On the death of John V, in 1391, Manuel was allowed 
to succeed to the title, and, officially, good relations were 
observed between the Sultan and the ruler of Constanti- 
nople. Bajesid, however, had no intention of permitting 
Manuel, whom he knew to be a man of ability and deci- 
sion, to gain any new ground. The few places contiguous 
to Constantinople, over which the Greeks still ruled, were 
constantly being harassed by Ottoman aggressions. Manuel 
was really being besieged in his own capital. His constant 
appeals for help were made in vain ; the Venetians found it 
commercially more advantageous to draw closer to the 
Osmanlis, especially since Bajesid, by absorbing various 
emirates in Asia Minor, was in control of important trad- 
ing towns on that coast. A treaty was concluded between 
the two powers, and the Venetians went so far as to deny 
their help to the Prankish lords of the ^gean, and were 
preparing to weaken continental Greece by efforts to gain 
territory in that quarter at the expense of the Greek master 
of the Morea, a son of the Emperor. 

While Sigismund was seeking allies in the West against 



238 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

the Turks, and Bajesid was elaborating plans for an in- 
vasion of the whole country south of his European hold- 
ings, Thessalonika was retaken from the Greeks. With- 
out much difficulty Turkish troops in a raid westward 
penetrated into the Morea, or Peloponnesus, itself, though 
a wall had been built by the Venetians across the Isthmus. 
No permanent settlement was made, but still the country 
suffered, for many of the inhabitants were sold, and, dur- 
ing the course of the expedition, many cities of Greece 
experienced, for the first time, the barbarism of a Turkish 
invasion. This expedition to the south was like so many 
others under the command of the local " Begs," because 
Bajesid himself was bent on completing the conquest of 
Bulgaria. After a long siege Tirnovo was taken by assault ; 
its churches were sacked, and it was, in general, made 
an example by the ruthless conqueror. Even the dead 
were left unburied. Along with a multitude of prisoners, 
the Bulgarian Patriarch was taken to Asia. As to Sisch- 
man, he is reputed to have died, either on the battle- 
field or in captivity; his capital, which had been the resi- 
dence of the Bulgar Tsars since 1200, sank to the level of a 
small market town, though once it had been famous for its 
beautiful buildings, constructed to rival or imitate those 
of Constantinople. Bulgaria, already a poor fragment of 
its original extent after the first stage of the invasion, 
now ceased altogether to exist as a Slav state. 

At this disastrous conjuncture for the Christian cause 
(1394), Sigismund of Hungary intervened by sending 
representatives to Bajesid to ask by what right he had 
destroyed Bulgaria. As an answer to the delegation, 
Bajesid is said to have shown the bows and arrows which 
decorated the hall of audience. Long anticipating the war- 
like aims of the Hungarian King, Bajesid made ready 
to complete the siege of Constantinople, and so to prevent 
any cooperation between the Greeks and the Christian 
power farther north. Sigismund, who, as we have men- 
tioned, had relied on his influence in the West to get aid 
adequate to the undertaking he had in hand, now knew 



THE OTTOMANS 239 

that his embassy which had visited France had been well 
received by the King, Charles VI, and his great nobles, 
many of whom had agreed to take up arms. As head of 
the expedition, John the Fearless, son of the Duke of Bur- 
gundy, had been selected; there were gathered round him 
many well-known lords as counselors, and a contingent 
of 10,000 men, foot and horse. Besides these, there were 
contingents of knights from Germany, Luxembourg, Eng- 
land, Switzerland, and the Low Countries. Even Venice 
was induced to supply galleys and money for the cause. 
The Knights of Rhodes sent their fleet and their Grand 
Master with it. The Slavs of Poland and the Rouma- 
nians also joined the crusade. Even Manuel took heart 
and promised to keep some of the Turkish army occupied 
by making an offensive movement. 

In July, 1396, the various contingents from the Occident 
met the Hungarian and Roumanian armies at Bada. Mir- 
cea, who had had personal experience with the Turkish 
military power, advised, with the wisdom that comes from 
defeat, a policy of defensive action, that the allies should 
wait for Bajesid's advance into Hungary. But this dilatory 
program was not acceptable to the Western knights, who 
declared that they were there to fight, not to waste time in 
the inaction of a camp. Accordingly the army went down 
the Danube to Ossovo, and the river was crossed near the 
so-called Iron Gates. 

After winning some initial successes in a land where only 
the garrisons were Turkish, the crusaders, on September 
12, reached Nicopolis, a place well fortified and strongly 
held by a veteran Ottoman general, Dogon-beg, who com- 
manded a garrison of seasoned troops. At first the French 
knights tried to take the place by storm ; but there were not 
enough ladders. It was, therefore, resolved to starve it 
out. The siege was in progress when Bajesid arrived from 
Constantinople. When he heard of the danger of his gen- 
eral he burnt his siege machines and hastened to Nicopolis. 
The crusaders would not at first believe that the Sultan was 
marching upon them ; those who first reported the news in 



240 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

the camp were treated as spies and had their ears cut off. 
When it was found to be true, the Christians massacred 
the prisoners already taken. 

In preparing for the battle there was a fatal diversity of 
views. Sigismund wished to put Mircea's men in the first 
line, since they were not regarded as good warlike ma- 
terial; next to this division he wished to station the Hun- 
garians, and then, as the chief support of the whole, the 
knights from the West. But the French would hear noth- 
ing of this plan, which they regarded as equivalent to an 
insult; the place in front belonged, they thought, to them 
by right. A few of the most experienced counselors of 
John of Burgundy agreed with Sigismund, but nothing 
could be done to persuade the mass of the French war- 
riors to give way. In the Ottoman army there were 
no differences of opinion; the Sultan's vassals were an- 
swerable to his command, and, it is to be noted, that 
Stephen, the young Servian despot, with a contingent of 
trained warriors, fought for Bajesid against the crusaders. 
But with this exception the Sultan's army, in all reckoned at 
110,000, was composed of Moslem troops. Out of the iio,- 
000 ranged on the other side, there were about 20,000 cru- 
saders, of whom 16,000 were French. These, with the 
bravado that came from the traditions of western chivalry, 
undertook to bear the brunt of the fighting. Sigismund 
again tried to secure the adoption of his more cautious plan, 
but without result. The constable of France, Count d'Eu, 
gave the signal to advance, and the French knights moved 
to the onslaught with cries of " Vive St. Denis, Vive St. 
George." Sigismund's army, composed of trusty Transyl- 
vanians, Hungarians, and Tschechs, was in the center, and 
on the right wing behind the crusaders, while Mircea's men 
made up the left. The Turks were drawn up in three lines ; 
in the first were irregular troops, " akindji " and " azabs," 
and a body of mercenaries ; in the second Asiatic foot sol- 
diers flanked by two squadrons of " spahis " ; behind were 
.stationed what might be called the guard regiments, the 
Janitschars and the spahis of the Porte; a short distance 



THE OTTOMANS 241 

away in individual formation stood the 5000 Servians under 
Stephen. 

In their reckless dash forward the knights carried every- 
thing before them, the irregulars first, and Janitschars after- 
wards, though these were protected by a line of inclined 
pointed stakes. The horsemen had no difficulty in leaping 
over these obstacles, and made fearful execution with their 
swords on the Turks in the level plain. But, while the 
French were driving through their enemies in front like 
a flying wedge, the Turks on the two wings were reform- 
ing to make an inclosing movement around the knights. 
As these could not withdraw, they continued the charge 
right into the second line of Bajesid, where they put " hors 
de combat " five thousand Turks. But by this time both men 
and horses were exhausted, and the ranks were broken. 
The more cautious leaders advised Count d'Eu to fall back 
on the Hungarians for support, but he gave orders to re- 
new the charge. The third line of the enemy could not, 
however, be broken; the Western crusaders were being 
overwhelmed by fresh bodies of Ottomans. 

The Frenchmen might have been aided easily by their 
allies behind them, but at this moment Mircea, with his 
Wallachians and the Transylvanian contingent, suddenly 
deserted the field. This cowardly action threw the rest of 
the army into a panic. Soon Sigismund was left with but a 
fraction of his army, the men from the Christian lands in 
the East lent no aid, nor did they stand their ground. The 
Hungarian King advanced to rescue the Western crusaders, 
but a charge made by the Servians, who had as yet kept 
out of the battle, prevented the union of the now 
separated portions of the Christian army. The French, 
though left alone, performed great feats of arms, fighting, 
as the chronicles say, Hke mad wolves and frothing boars. 
Gathering together in small groups of eight or ten, the 
knights, using their long swords, fortified themselves behind 
the heaps of dead and wounded Turks. It was told how the 
standard of the Virgin, defended by John de Vienne and 
his companions, was six times struck to the ground, only 



242 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

to be proudly lifted again until the heroic Frenchman him- 
self fell, still clasping in his arms the tattered standard. 
Sigismund also fought desperately, but there was no escape 
except by retreating northward to the Danube, where the 
galleys of Rhodes and Venice took on board what was left 
of the great army of the crusaders. 

The splendid equipment of the Western knights fur- 
nished Bajesid with immense spoil; but it was a dear vic- 
tory. From thirty to forty thousand of his men lay dead on 
the field, as a witness to the prowess of French chivalry. 
Wherever the French fought, the chronicles record that 
" for one Christian of those who lay dead on the field, there 
were thirty Turks or more, or other men of that faith." 
Maddened by his losses, the Sultan ordered his prisoners 
to be killed. The massacre went on all day; 2000 were 
executed; only those escaped who were likely to be ran- 
somed for large sums, and a few prisoners whose age was 
less than twenty years. It was the soldiers' greed rather 
than the Sultan's clemency which brought the butchery to 
an end. 

When the news of the defeat was received at Paris, there 
was universal mourning. Then an embassy was sent, with 
rich presents for the Sultan, to arrange the ransom of the 
prisoners. The amount settled upon was 20o,cx)0 florins. 
The Western ambassadors were treated with great courtesy 
and magnificent entertainments were provided for their 
amusement. In parting from one of the distinguished cap- 
tives, John the Fearless, son of the Duke of Burgundy, 
Bajesid said, " I do not wish to require from you the 
oath not to bear arms against me again; if, when you re- 
turn home, you still find yourself in the humor for fight- 
ing me, you will find me always ready to meet you on the 
field of battle, for I am born for war and conquest." As 
presents for Charles VI of France, in exchange for those 
that had been sent him, he despatched by the French en- 
voys various warlike accouterments, among others a drum 
and bowstrings, made of human flesh. 

The fancifulness of the Turk was also seen by his send- 



THE OTTOMANS 243 

ing with those who made the formal announcement of his 
victory to the Moslem princes of Asia and Egypt, the 
Western prisoners all equipped in their heavy armor to 
enable the leaders of his own faith to understand the 
significance of his success. As a result of the battle of 
Nicopolis, Bosnia, Bulgaria, and Roumania accepted Otto- 
man rule; at the same time the adjoining lands of the 
Hungarian King became the field of Turkish raids. 

Constantinople was in a perilous situation, but an attempt 
to take it failed (1398). Less fortunate, as has been seen, 
were the inhabitants of continental Greece, who saw Argos 
taken, and the country of the Peloponnesus ravaged by 
Bajesid. The troubles of the imperial city were not re- 
lieved by Bajesid's failure to capture it, for by the instiga- 
tion of the Turks, John, the nephew of Manuel, became 
a claimant for the crown, and at the head of 10,000 Otto- 
man troops marched on the city. The result was that 
Manuel agreed to take his nephew as associate in the Em- 
pire, a term which now had only a technical significance, 
for the imperial dignity meant little more than the rule 
over Constantinople itself. Bajesid refused to allow this 
arrangement unless further concessions were made, such 
as the establishment of a fourth mosque in the city, and the 
same local autonomy for the Turkish colony as that en- 
joyed by the Venetians and Genoese. Manuel refused and 
appealed to Western Christendom. France again showed 
its sympathy by sending a survivor of the Nicopolis cam- 
paign, a knight, Boucicout, who, with only 1200 men, forced 
the entrance of the Dardanelles, and afterwards won a 
minor success in Asia, though he failed in his attempt to 
take Nicodemia. Manuel tried, as his father had done, a 
personal visit to the West, and remained nearly two years 
in France. Bajesid, in the meantime, was encircHng Con- 
stantinople with his fleet and armies, when the situation sud- 
denly changed, owing to the expansion of a new power 
in the Orient. 

The emirates of those Seldjouks, who had survived ab- 
sorption by the Ottomans, had, at the close of the four- 



244 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

teenth century, formed a defensive alliance against Bajesid, 
but they were not successful. The Sultan seized their best 
provinces, and, when they resorted to arms, defeated the 
Seldjoukian emirs on the battlefield. Gradually the Otto- 
man dominions were approaching the Euphrates, by which 
they were brought near the frontier of the newly-organized 
Mongol empire, the creation of the great conqueror Timur. 
The growth of bad feeling between the two rival powers 
was accentuated, when each sovereign began to receive with 
favor the rebellious vassals of the other. Timur sent to 
the Sultan a threatening letter, which was answered in 
the temper in which it was couched. Timur's reply was to 
cross the frontier, and this step was followed up by the 
capture of the important town of Sivas. All the inhabitants 
were massacred, the Christians in it being burned alive, and 
the governor of the place, a son of the Sultan, was strangled. 
Timur turned from his invasion of the south to attack 
Angora with the purpose of drawing the Turks into a 
trap. He succeeded, for he had between two and three 
hundred thousand men, while Bajesid, to oppose him, had 
only 120,000. A great battle took place on July 20, 1402, 
which ended most disastrously for the Turks, because the 
Seldjoukians went over to the enemy. Bajesid was cap- 
tured, and two of his sons were killed. Much of the land 
to the west was overrun by the Mongols, but a permanent 
organization of the Mongol Empire was made impossible 
because of the death of Timur on February 19, 1405. 
Bajesid had also died of a broken heart, after his terrible 
defeat. 

IV 

MURAD II 

This change of fortune meant much for the Greek Em- 
pire. Manuel took courage, deprived the Turks of their 
privileges at Constantinople, and making use of the divisions 
among the successors of Bajesid, succeeded in regaining 



THE OTTOMANS 245 

a part of the territories that had been lost. For some 
years the Ottomans, under Mohammed, were engaged in 
regaining their position in Asia; in Europe the tables were 
reversed. The empire of the Ottomans seemed to be on 
the point of going through a process of disintegration simi- 
lar to that experienced by their predecessors of the same 
race, the Seldjouks. When it was defunct its residuary 
legatee might well be the Greek Empire. 

There were now many Ottoman princes, no longer one 
sultan. Souliman, who reigned at Adrianople, sought the 
protection of Manuel, gave him as a hostage one of his 
sisters, married a niece of the Emperor, restored part of 
Macedonia and Ionia, and yielded up Thessalonika, the 
greatest prize of all. When he was succeeded by his brother 
Mousa, there was an outbreak of hostilities; Thessalonika 
was again lost by the Greeks, but soon retaken, while a 
Turkish fleet was resisted by a fleet now manned by Greek 
sailors; for Manuel had taken care to provide for a navy, 
and was no longer dependent on the commercial cities of 
Italy. Mohammed was summoned by Manuel from Asia 
as an ally against Mousa, and the two succeeded in de- 
feating him. On his capture he met death at Mohammed's 
hands. 

For the next eight years ( 141 3- 142 1) Mohammed was 
sole ruler of the Osmanlis, but internal difliculties hindered 
aggressive action on his part, so far as the Christian powers 
were concerned. His policy was decidedly philhellenic, 
Manuel receiving from his hands important territories on 
the Black Sea and the Propontis ; but his main attention was 
directed to the Asiatic provinces, where, in addition to 
troubles with the emir of Karamania, there were disturb- 
ances, due to religious agitations in Islam. One of the chief 
agitators was a converted Jew, Torlak-Hin-Kemali, a 
preacher of the revolutionary doctrines of liberty and equal- 
ity, who demanded a division of property. This com- 
munistic teaching stirred up the masses of the people, and 
excited the active sympathy of the dervish party. 

On the death of Mohammed, his son, Murad II, took 



246 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

up the succession. He was a prince of energy and ability, 
who devoted himself for thirty years to the restoration 
of the Empire. The Greek Emperor Manuel still carried 
on his policy of sowing dissension among the Turks, but 
with less success than in the preceding period. Mustafa, 
an uncle of the new Sultan, became the ally of the Greeks, 
and Gallipoli, the first place taken by the Turks in Europe, 
was besieged. Murad hastened personally to save the town 
from capture. His uncle was taken, beaten, and hanged. 
Murad undertook then to lay siege to Constantinople, this 
making the fourth time that the city had been threatened 
by Ottoman armies. (June, 1422.) 

The besiegers were a motley host; mixed with the sol- 
diers were dervishes, marabouts (religious teachers), ar- 
tisans, and peasants, all drawn together by the hope of 
sacking the rich capital. 

They showed much improvement in the siege-methods 
employed, for they used wooden towers, and tried to get 
into the city through the aqueduct. The Greek armies were 
beaten in front of the walls, but Manuel and his son, John, 
soon found a way for causing the withdrawal of Murad's 
army, by inviting over from Asia another son of Mo- 
hammed, to whom his brother had intrusted the govern- 
ment of one of the Asiatic provinces. He was ceremoni- 
ously received in the city, and as soon as it was known in 
the Turkish camp that he was on his way to the west, 
Murad withdrew to Adrianople. 

This siege is signahzed in the chronicles by a narrative 
of the miraculous appearance of the Virgin on the walls of 
the city, the very day a general assault had been ordered. 
The Ottomans, panic-stricken, it is said, hastened to re- 
treat. Both Christians and Mohammedans accepted the 
authenticity of the apparition, which is not surprising, since, 
in the ranks of the Sultan's army, there were large num- 
bers of men who had been converted to Islam, but who 
could not throw aside the religious habits of mind of 
medieval Christians. 

Peace was made on conditions extremely favorable to the 



THE OTTOMANS 247 

Greeks. There was still a tribute to be paid, but some 
territory that had been taken in the campaign was restored. 
When Manuel died in 1425 he left six sons, all of whom were 
in positions of command. One of them, John VIII, was his 
successor as Emperor, the others were ruling parts of the 
empire at Thessalonika and farther south. 

One of the first acts of the new administration was to 
endeavor to placate the Turks by restoring some of the 
towns on the Black Sea. But the efforts at pacification 
were of no avail. The Morea was invaded by one of the 
Sultan's generals, Tourakhan-beg, whose progress was not 
effectively contested, except by the Albanian colonies. The 
inhabitants of these were, however, mercilessly slaughtered, 
and on the site of the razed towns the Turks erected 
pyramids of the heads of their victims. In the north, too, 
there was successful fighting on the part of the Ottomans, 
both with the Roumanians and the Bulgarians, and even 
with the Hungarians, whose King, Sigismund, was defeated 
near the walls of Kolunbitz. 

In 1430, Murad took charge of the attack on Thessalo- 
nika, now in the possession of the Venetians, who had taken 
it from the Greek prince Andronicus. The activity of 
Venice at this time is in decided contrast to the cautious pol- 
icy displayed by the repubHc in the previous century. For 
one thing, the secular contest with Genoa had been decided 
in favor of the Adriatic port. Then, too, the objections of 
the Venetians to occupy continental possessions had been 
overcome by the exigencies of Italian politics, which had 
forced Venice to play a larger role in advancing her espe- 
cial interests than ever before. It seemed for a time as 
if the Venetians would become the natural heirs to the 
territories of the Eastern Empire in the lands of peninsular 
Greece, while to the north Hungary had risen to be the 
main power, around which the Roumanian and Slavic races 
gathered as their natural protector against the Turk. From 
now on the establishment of the Ottoman power in Europe 
would depend on the overthrow of both the Venetians and 
the Hungarians. The former, as has just been intimated, 



248 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

were slowly and diplomatically acquiring Greek principali- 
ties in the south of continental Greece, but were striv- 
ing, at the same time, not to bear the brunt of Turkish 
hostility. They relied partly on the strong fleet which 
had been sent to the East, and partly on the care they had 
taken to secure the aid of the Hungarians. On the other 
hand, the Turks had been developing their navy, and they 
ventured, as early as 1428, to attack merchant vessels be- 
longing to the republic. 

The fall of Thessalonika precipitated events and caused 
the Venetians to recognize that quick action was necessary. 
The republic entered into relations with the King of Cyprus 
and with the dissatisfied vassal princes of Karamania, who 
were ever ready to rebel against the Sultan. Proposals 
were made to King Sigismund to inaugurate a new crusade, 
in which he would have charge of the land forces, while 
the Venetians, keeping the mastery of the sea, would pre- 
vent new troops from being sent over from Asia!. Un- 
happily, Sigismund proved apathetic; there were disturb- 
ances in the Albanian lands owned by Venice, and a war 
with Genoa kept the Venetians from having a free hand 
to deal effectively with the Sultan. Accordingly, a peace 
was patched up, by the terms of which Venice paid a 
tribute to the Turks for some of her Greek possessions. 

Plundering expeditions were now made by the Turks into 
Hungarian territory, but before Sigismund could undertake 
military operations on his side his death occurred. (De- 
cember 9, 1437.) The work of defense was then under- 
taken by his successor and son-in-law, Albert. For the first 
time the Sultan in person led an army in the region of the 
Carpathians and the Danube, and, although a coalition was 
formed, consisting of Hungarians, Servians, and Wal- 
lachians, the Turkish arms proved, as so often, irresistible. 
Semendria was taken, and many thousands of prisoners 
were carried away from the ravaged countries. But Bel- 
grade held out, though Albert died there among his troops 
on October 27, 1438. 

Strong hands were found ready to take up the work of 



THE OTTOMANS 249 

defense. In the city, which was amply protected by a three- 
fold wall, and by many pieces of artillery mounted on the 
ramparts, there was a garrison of German mercenaries, 
while in other regions exposed to the invaders, there were 
Hungarian forces under the command of Johann Hunyadi, 
the son of a Roumanian peasant of Inidora, whose reputa- 
tion as a national hero was soon to be made in the vic- 
torious leadership of his people against the Turk. 

Hunyadi's first aggressive act was an invasion into Bos- 
nia, where he drove out some marauding bands of the 
Turkish general Isa-beg. A much more important mili- 
tary exploit was the battle of Szt-Imre, where, in 1442 
(March 18), the Turks were forced back into Wallachia. 
Attempts made somewhat later to avenge this humiliation 
had no final success, for Hunyadi attacked the invading 
army on its march, winning a victory conspicuous because 
many well-known Ottoman generals lost their lives. 

Spurred by the prowess of Hunyadi, the Western powers 
prepared to support him in driving the Ottomans from 
Europe. There was additional ground for hope in the 
arrangements, lately made, for a union between the East- 
ern and Western churches, a scheme naturally regarded as 
a good basis for cooperation against the Moslems. A new 
crusade was proclaimed, but nothing was accomplished by 
it, since the Venetians feared the loss of their possessions 
in the East, if the Slavic races were too actively aided, 
and since the Pope had no inclination to part with the 
tithes collected for the crusade, while he had use for them 
in protecting his temporal sovereignty as an Italian prince. 

The Hungarians, left for these sinister reasons to deal 
with the Turks single-handed, displayed no lack of resolu- 
tion. Hunyadi, with troops of Roumanians and Hun- 
garians, passed the Danube late in October, 1443. He soon 
occupied Nisch and defeated several Ottoman armies, but 
the campaign had no decisive result, for Hunyadi feared to 
penetrate farther into Turkish territory without additional 
forces, especially as Murad was now in personal command. 
This caution was justified, for, in withdrawing, the Christian 



250 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

army suffered a reverse. The Hungarians could congratu- 
late themselves that their advance had given great encour- 
agement wherever the pressure of the Turkish occupation 
was felt. Yet there was no sincere effort on the part of 
the Christian powers to work together. The Servians made 
their own terms with the Sultan, and the Venetian fleet, 
ostensibly despatched to eastern waters to act with the Hun- 
garians, was put under the command of Loredano, who 
had private instructions to come to terms with the 
Turks. 

The story of a peace concluded on terms most humiliat- 
ing for Murad, by which, among other things, the whole of 
Bulgaria and Servia was evacuated, is rightly questioned. 
All that is known is that Wladislaw, who was now King of 
Hungary (1440), solemnly protested that he would under- 
take a crusade against the Turks, all treaties and truces 
to the contrary notwithstanding. The expedition was be- 
gun, Hunyadi cooperating, and Papal legates testifying, by 
their presence, that a true crusade was in progress. But, 
although the army stood for the cause of the whole of 
Christendom, in the ranks there were almost none but 
Hungarian soldiers. It crossed the Danube, intending to 
march straight to Varna, and from there proceed by sea 
to Constantinople. But it was far too small for the work 
it planned to do; even after it had been joined by Vlad of 
Wallachia, it only numbered 15,000 men. Before Varna 
could be taken, Murad (at the head of an army of 40,000 
men) hastened from Asia to arrest the progress of the 
crusaders. In the engagement that followed all efforts to 
break through the Janitschars, even when attempted under 
the experienced leadership of Hunyadi, failed completely, 
and the Christians suffered a decisive overthrow. Only a 
few of the 15,000 escaped, among them Hunyadi and Vlad. 
Among the dead were the King of Hungary and a Papal 
legate. (October, 1444.) 

The news of this disaster took some time to reach the 
West, and by the time it was known there, information 
was also received that the indefatigable Hunyadi was again 



THE OTTOMANS 251 

girding himself up for a second expedition. This ended 
with some small advantages in Wallachia. Again, in 1448, 
he tried another mode of entrance into the Sultan's ter- 
ritory, passing this time among the Albanians, on whose 
aid he reckoned without avail, since they were fighting on 
their own account against the Turks. The Servians, too, 
held aloof. The second battle of Kossovo (October 17, 
1448) ended in a defeat for the Hungarians, although the 
Turkish losses were very severe. Under the hammer- 
ing of Hunyadi, the Janitschars were obliged to give 
way, but they withdrew in good order with unbroken 
ranks. 

There was a truce for three years after this battle, much 
to the relief of both sides, since Murad had encountered 
an aggressive Albanian leader in Scanderbeg, who seemed 
Hkely to rival Hunyadi as an enemy of Ottoman rule. For 
some time this Albanian champion, whose name in Albanian 
is equivalent to Alexander, had been kept as a page at the 
Sultan's court. During the confusion caused by the cam- 
paigns of Hunyadi, the young man had managed to escape, 
but before doing so, he had forced the Sultan's secretary, 
under menace of death, to sign an order directing the com- 
mander of Croia to give up the place to Scanderbeg. On 
reaching his home in the mountains, the Albanian chief- 
tain put himself at the head of 600 warriors. Entering 
Croia alone he presented his written order to the governor, 
who immediately turned over the place to him. In the 
night he brought his men into the town and the Turkish 
garrison was massacred. 

Everywhere throughout the land the Albanian people 
rose to cast out the Turk from their borders. Scanderbeg 
soon had 11,000 men under him, and won back all the pos- 
sessions belonging to his family. Even the Venetians, who 
had tried to seize an Albanian town, were glad to come to 
terms with him, and to become his financial agents. He 
was accepted as chief of all the forces operating against 
the Ottomans, and a relief expedition of 40,000 men, under 
the command of Ali Pascha, the vizier, was caught in the 



252 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

fastnesses of the Albanian mountains and slowly extermi- 
nated. (1443.) Another Turkish army fared no better 
than that under Ali Pascha, and it lost 10,000 men. When 
Murad himself undertook to repress the rebelHon, bringing 
with him the overwhelming force of 100,000 men, he took 
two cities, but left 20,000 of his men dead in the nar- 
row defiles of Albania. Two years afterwards Murad 
began the siege of Croia, trusting to specially powerful 
artillery to overwhelm the enemy. But Scanderbeg, by skil- 
ful manoeuvers, not only held the Sultan in check, but actu- 
ally enveloped his army. Murad, seeing his danger, offered 
peace, on condition that Scanderbeg would acknowledge 
his sovereignty, and pay tribute to him. This was refused, 
and Murad abandoned his efforts to arrest the stubborn 
guerrilla warfare in which the Albanian chieftain had 
proved himself a master. 

In the Morea, where the Byzantine princes, the sons of 
Manuel II, were gaining ground at the expense of one of 
the Latin feudal lords, the Florentine Acciajuoli, who had 
accepted the Sultan as his overlord, Murad's army of 60,000 
men achieved decisive successes. The wall across the Isth- 
mus of Corinth was taken by the Ottoman artillery, and 
the Peloponnesus was overrun by the invaders. Corinth 
was seized and burnt; but Patras, by its stout resistance, 
held the Sultan in check until terms were made, by which 
the invaders withdrew, on condition of receiving an annual 
tribute. (1446.) 

But the dynastic disputes of Constantinople weakened the 
Greek power of resistance as much as did their failure in 
warfare. On the death of John VIII, in 1448, the dispute 
between his sons as to the succession was settled by 
Murad, who decided in favor of Constantine, the valiant 
defender of Patras. There was, however, no ceremony of 
coronation; therefore, strictly speaking, the last Christian 
Emperor of the East appears in the long line of the suc- 
cessors of Constantine the Great, — his namesake, — with a 
tinge of irregularity in his record. Soon after this eleva- 
tion Murad died, February 8, 145 1. His virtues are cele- 



Medal of Mohammed II. 



THE OTTOMANS 253 

brated by the western chronicler, Brocquiere, in the words, 
" a mild person, kind and generous in according lordship 
and money." 



MOHAMMED H 

Mohammed H was only twenty years old when he took 
up the reins of government. He was ambitious, was en- 
dowed with great physical endurance, and, from reading 
the deeds of JuHus Csesar and Alexander, as they appeared 
in the folklore tales translated into Arabic, had conceived 
a strong desire to transform the tribal and loosely organ- 
ized sovereignty of his people into an enduring political 
power with a systematic organization. His primary object 
was the capture of Constantinople, and to get a free hand 
for this undertaking, he adopted a most pacific policy in 
the first year of his reign. He renewed the treaties with 
Genoa and Venice, with the princes of Servia and Wal- 
lachia, and with Hunyadi, Scanderbeg, and the Knights of 
Rhodes. 

He opened hostilities with the Greeks by building, in an 
extraordinarily short space of time, a fortification on the 
narrow seas, near the imperial city, which enabled him to 
collect dues from all the vessels entering the harbor, and 
served as a point from which issued armed expeditions that 
captured nearly all the Greek territory outside the city 
walls. Meanwhile, some slight acts of aggression in the 
Morea failed to reveal to the West the real purposes of 
the new Sultan. Those who had seen him spoke of him as 
a mild and learned young man, not at all the kind of ruler 
who would walk in footsteps different from his father's. 
The Western Emperor, Frederick HI, thought it was suf- 
ficient to write the Sultan a letter, warning him not to 
attack Constantinople. Those who were nearer understood 
his temper better, knowing that, when Constantine sent a 
delegation to protest against the erection of the fortifica- 



254 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

tion that had lately been built on the European shore of 
the Bosphorus, the Greek emissaries had been beheaded. 

In the doomed city itself dissensions reigned supreme. 
Ecclesiastics had come from Rome to look over the re- 
ligious situation in Constantinople with the purpose of re- 
porting the prospects for carrying out the terms of union, 
drawn up lately at the Council of Florence. Their ap- 
pearance in the city disgusted the common people, who 
called their new Emperor a traitor to the Eastern Church, 
and an irreligious usurper, who was, after all, they said, 
not a real emperor, because he had not been crowned. 

The Venetians were busy looking after their own in- 
terests on the Adriatic coast or in continental Greece. 
They were busy arranging terms with the Sultan, as to the 
export of grain from Asia, and were so pleased with their 
commercial success in this bargain that they only resolved 
to allow artillerymen to be hired among the subjects of 
Venice by Constantine, not to aid him officially. 

Outside the city the prospects for successful resistance 
were quite as bad. When a delegation came from the 
East to beg their help, they were referred by the Signoria 
to the Holy Father, as the head of the crusading program. 
Yet they began to suspect something was wrong when one 
of their ships, coming out of the Bosphorus, was fired on 
by the Turks, and the crew was taken and massacred. 
There were a few Venetian merchants' galleys in the har- 
bor whose crews, at the Emperor's request, took part in the 
work of defending the fortifications. The Genoese, fear- 
ful of the fate of their colony at Pera, sent an armed force 
of looo men to help defend the city. 

While keeping up a constant blockade, Mohammed was 
preparing his plans. His success, he saw, depended on 
siege guns, for he fully appreciated the tremendous revolu- 
tion in warfare due to the use of gunpowder. From the 
many renegades in his camp he had heard of the remarkable 
effects produced by bronze cannon in battles and sieges. 
His adviser in preparing his siege guns was Urban, prob- 
ably a Roumanian renegade, who showed great skill in per- 



THE OTTOMANS 255 

fecting the technique of projectiles at this early stage of 
their use. To the inventive faculty of this Christian fugi- 
tive in the Osmanli camp, the taking of the great Christian 
capital in the Orient was largely due. The weight of the 
new guns is shown by the fact that it took sixty oxen to 
draw the first one, which was manufactured by the end 
of February. Fifty similar ones were ordered to be con- 
structed. 

Troops from Asia and Slavic contingents from Europe 
kept gathering round the city during the winter and early 
spring; there was besides an Ottoman flotilla of 300 vessels. 
By the beginning of April, 1453, the Sultan, with his court, 
came to the encampment of the besieging army, and took 
up a position two miles and a half away from the city 
walls. To each portion of the fortifications a certain con- 
tingent was assigned, specific directions to proceed with the 
attack being given, according to the character of the ground 
and the defenses. 

In the Sultan's army there were probably as many men 
under arms as were usually taken in the Turkish military 
expeditions, between forty and sixty thousand, but the 
number is not given in the sources. The Emperor Con- 
stantine had not more than 7000 men; besides, as we have 
seen, the population were ill disposed to him, because of 
his concessions to the Latin Church, and more than once 
the hostile cry was heard within the walls, " better under 
the Turks than under the Latins." One of Constantine's 
chief officials, Lukas Notoras, had already exchanged his 
Christian headgear for a Turkish turban. 

The Latin element in the town took the chief part in 
the defense; not only were one-third of the soldiers from 
the West, but the galleys in the harbor, the weapons used, 
the stores for the siege, all were from the Occident. Only 
one of the towers on the city walls was in charge of a 
Greek, and the keys of the four chief city gates were kept 
by the Venetians. Catalans and Genoese were also given 
responsible positions; even in the personal entourage of 
the Emperor, only a few Greek names are noted. 



256 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

When the siege opened, the character of Mohammed's 
strategy was soon plain. He had no intention of making a 
general assault of the ordinary type; instead, his cannon 
were directed against weak spots in the wall, and the work 
of destruction began. An unsuccessful attempt, however, 
was made to surprise the garrison on the 17th of April, and 
the Sultan was greatly disappointed when his fleet came 
out worsted from a fight with the imperial ships, which 
issued from the harbor to protect the entrance of three or 
four Genoese vessels that were bringing in stores. 

While the walls on the land side were being bombarded, 
the part of the city touching the sea was threatened. Ur- 
ban, imitating the Venetians, who had transported war 
galleys across the land to Lake Garda, brought some of 
the Turkish ships from Galata-Pera to the Golden Horn. 
All attempts to destroy this hostile flotilla failed; by its 
presence it divided the Christian forces, and kept the small 
army of Constantine from concentrating in any strength 
at a threatened point. When May came, the besieged popu- 
lation began to suffer from scarcity of food. The only 
hope of relief was to be looked for from Venice; for the 
other powers in the West had received Constantine's 
appeals with only verbal promises, or with indifference. 
Yet even the Venetians proceeded with great deliberation. 
The twelve galleys that had been ordered to be sent to 
help Constantinople in February were only ready by May 
7th, and the Admiral, Loredano, was given instructions to 
handle the Turks unaggressively. He was told not to 
engage in a battle with them unless forced to do so. 

Slowly the various details of the siege operations were 
perfected by the Turks; parts of the moats before the 
walls were filled up; a bridge was built from Pera to 
Constantinople, that gave an admirable basis for cannonad- 
ing the city at close quarters. On the 28th the inhabitants 
noted such great activity in the Ottoman camp that it 
was evident the final attack was close at hand. Moham- 
med rode from point to point giving final directions, and 
word was proclaimed by heralds that every member of 



THE OTTOMANS 257 

the besieging army should be prepared. The movement in 
the Turkish camp began three hours before daybreak. The 
Christian alhes and the rank and file of the Moslem sol- 
diers were directed to place ladders at a point in the 
wall near the Romanos gate that had already especially 
suffered from artillery fire. The loss of life among the 
assailants, at this point, was very great, but as the elite of 
the army did not suffer, the Ottoman leaders were in- 
different as to the cost of getting the ladders near the walls 
and defenses. 

The next step was to bring up the Janitschars, who, un- 
der the personal direction of the Sultan and the two chief 
generals of his army, commenced operations near the Ro- 
manos and two other gates. Compact in their firm dis- 
cipline, and protected by artillery fire, with the smoke of 
their guns concealing from the defenders their rapid mo- 
tion, they pressed ahead. On the Greek side the Emperor 
kept out of the tumultuous fighting, leaving the work of 
active defense to the Italian Giustiniano, who made a heroic 
resistance in the interior defenses of the city, until, struck 
in the breast by a bullet, he was carried away to a ship 
mortally wounded. After this fatality general confusion 
followed; there was no one to take the commander's place. 
No words of command were now heard; the Turks, who 
had been held back from the high walls, filled up the space 
between the outer lines of temporary palisades and the 
permanent fortifications that were being dismantled by 
the cannonading. 

At the place where Giustiniano had been shot some 
ladders were set up, and at the same time a small gate, 
used by the Genoese soldiers to pass out of the city to 
protect the outer ring of the defensive works, was occupied. 
By this way a considerable number of the Janitschars pene- 
trated into the interior of the city. But their entrance 
was not noticed by the defenders on the walls, who, in 
the conflict, had no time to leave their posts. The sailors 
of the fleet now landed, ready to take their part of the 
spoil. The squadrons of Janitschars rode without re- 



258 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

sistance through the narrow streets flanked with wooden 
houses, searching for the first of the booty. Every corner 
was searched for wealthy citizens, who would be likely to 
pay large ransoms, and for valuable slaves. Adult men, 
actually with weapons in their hands, were killed, and, of 
course, no Franks were spared, nor any of the imperial 
troops. Small children, too, old men, and invalids, who 
came in the way of the Ottoman soldiers, were mercilessly 
slaughtered; they had no marketable value. Whole groups 
of citizens were dragged off, and then a systematic plunder- 
ing of churches and private houses began; carpets, stuffs, 
precious stones and metals, books, whose binding attracted 
notice, all were carried off. (May 29, 1453.) 

In the sacking of the city the Emperor Constantine 
perished. When he saw destruction going on all about 
him, he is said to have asked, " Is there no Christian 
here to cut my head off? " His fate must have come later, 
for his body was found on a heap of corpses near the 
gate that had first been entered. His head was set the same 
day on a column of the Augusteion, a sign to the Greeks that 
they had no other emperor now but the Sultan. Then it 
was placed in a precious casket and despatched from one 
Moslem ruler to another as the convincing proof of the 
prowess of their Moslem overlord. 

Three days had been allowed for the sack; after this 
period the troops returned to their camp. Some of the 
streets were then cleaned, and the Sultan made his solemn 
entry into the deserted city to the Church of St. Sophia, 
which he transformed into a mosque. The Podesta and 
a few of the Italians from Pera, who had not actually been 
under arms, were protected by a guarantee from the Sul- 
tan's own hand. But the walls of the suburb were de- 
troyed, all weapons had to be given up, and a slave suc- 
ceeded the Genoese Podesta as the supreme authority in 
the colony. 

Most of the fleet, taking advantage of the confusion dur- 
ing the capture of the city, succeeded in getting away, tak- 
ing with them some fugitives who escaped by disguising 



THE OTTOMANS 259 

themselves in a Turkish garb. The head of the Venetian 
colony and the Catalan Consul were beheaded as disturbers 
of the peace, and even Lukas Notoras, the chief Greek 
noble, did not escape, although he had led the opposition 
against Constantine. The Greek clergy, on the other hand, 
were treated with great clemency; they had been trained 
by centuries into habits of servile obedience to secular 
rulers, and, therefore, they could be turned into useful 
instruments for ruling the subject Christian population. 

With shrewd understanding of the religious situation, 
Mohammed now appointed as Patriarch in place of the 
Latin ecclesiastic, who had escaped from the city, the 
leader of the clerical opposition, Gennadios Scholarios. 
The new Patriarch dined with the new Emperor, and 
received rich presents and most courteous attention, be- 
fitting his exalted dignity as a churchman. In place of 
Santa Sophia, he was given as his metropolitan church 
the building known as the Church of the Holy Apostles. 
As a new Patriarch, created by favor of the Moslem Em- 
peror, he kept his rights of jurisdiction over the Emperor's 
Christian subjects. 

A Moslem governor was placed in the city to order the 
administration, with instructions to induce those who had 
fled from the town to return, and to arrange for the 
colonization of the Moslem newcomers. Only a small 
garrison was left; and the Sultan took his road to Adria- 
nople on i8th of June. While the Moslem ruler and his 
successors spared the population, and left to their Greek 
subjects a kind of spiritual empire, the conquest of Con- 
stantinople proved fatal to the many treasures of ancient 
art that had survived the Latin conquest of the city in 1204. 
The bronze statues of the Emperors were made into 
cannon, the bronze inscriptions on arches and obelisks 
were coined into money, and the marble statues of pagan 
divinities were turned into lime. Valuable antique columns 
were sawn to make baths, or were transformed into cannon 
balls. 

The Basilica, in which" the bodies of the Empprors were 



26o THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

buried, became a mosque; the bones were scattered and 
the sarcophagi turned to the basest uses. Forty-two 
other churches became mosques, or were secularized; one, 
St. Irenseus, was employed as an arsenal. Some of the 
splendid mosaics in Santa Sophia were hidden by white- 
wash, because of their Christian symbolism; near the 
structure was built a minaret, and Mohammed's successors 
added three more. As time went on, new mosques were 
constructed; also hospitals, schools, and palaces, the Sul- 
tan being a great builder. The new population was cos- 
mopolitan, for many Greek, Servian, and Roumanian towns 
were drawn upon for their several contingents, as the 
Turkish conquests continued. 

At the time of his great achievement, Mohammed was 
only twenty-five years old. He publicly announced that he 
had reached maturity by decapitating the Grand Vizier 
Khalil, the tutor set over him by his father, who was sus- 
pected of treasonable communications jwith the Greeks 
during the siege. He made it plain, also, that there was 
to be no repose from war after the taking of the capital, 
the Servians being the first to experience his heavy hand. 
Brankovitch's fidelity as a vassal proved no protection to 
him; for Mohammed wrote claiming his kingdom. In ter- 
ror the Servian prince fled to Hungary to secure the aid 
of Hunyadi. The war that followed was hotly contested, 
with the result that in 1454 the Sultan agreed, on the 
basis of the large tribute of 30,000 ducats, to recognize 
Brankovitch. 

But this peace was not observed, for the conqueror ap- 
peared the next year and took Novoberda. Hunyadi, 
against whom bitter foes were working at the court of the 
King of Hungary, had only the support of the Wallachian 
princely house. When Belgrade was attacked by Mo- 
hammed, in May, 1456, only 3000 Christian soldiers were 
ready to oppose him. When the siege really began, how- 
ever, 200 boats appeared before the city, containing many 
thousand men of various nationalities, whom the Francis- 
can monk, John of Capistrano, had drawn to the crusading 



THE OTTOMANS 261 

cause by his protracted and widely extended journeys in 
Western Europe. Though over seventy years old, he had 
displayed remarkable energy, and he was honored by the 
defenders of Belgrade as a holy apostle. 

On July 15 the two welcome allies took possession of the 
castle, as the city had not yet been cut off from the outside. 
The first stage of the defense was the defeat of the Turkish 
flotilla on the Danube; some vessels were sunk and others 
were captured, so that entrance into the town by water 
was made safe. In the attempt to storm the defenses made 
by the Janitschars, who advanced in small divisions, hardly 
600 survived; three times Hunyadi, sallying from the cas- 
tles, forced back the assailants. Capistrano's crusaders 
proved too much for the Sultan's trained troops ; marching 
right up to the guns and careless of the havoc caused by the 
cannon fire, those who took part in the sortie cut down 
the Turks and threw the cannon into the water and ditches. 
If the crusaders had not stopped on the way to plunder, 
they would have broken through the Sultan's own body- 
guard. As it was the Ottomans were able to withdraw 
safely from their camp; but they lost some of their best 
captains, among them Aga, who was killed while pro- 
tecting the Sultan, who escaped with an arrow wound. 

No serious attempt was made to follow up this victory, 
though Hunyadi boasted that it was now possible " to take 
possession of the whole kingdom of Turkey." Anarchy 
prevailed in the motley crowd gathered in the crusading 
camps along the river ; worse still, owing to the unhealthful 
surroundings in the low lands, a plague began, to which 
the great Hungarian champion soon fell a victim ; not long 
after Capistrano also died. 

Soon after the death of Hunyadi the long career of the 
Servian Prince Brankovitch came to an end, and with it 
closed the history of Servia as a vassal state, for his death 
was followed by long and bloody quarrels over the suc- 
cession. Finally, the claim of Brankovitch's daughter-in- 
law, Helena, the widow of his son Lazaras, was acknowl- 
edged. Her accession gave Mohammed an excuse for ap- 



262 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

pearing as the champion of an Ottoman pretender. The 
Sultan's influence over the Servian nobility was increased 
by the fact that Helena was favorable to the Latin Church ; 
she placed Servia under the protection of the Pope, and 
married her daughter to the heir of the Bosnian kingdom. 
But this foreign help availed nothing. Many of the strong 
places in Servia were captured, including the city of Se- 
mandria (1459). The Servian " woiwodes," who pre- 
ferred the domination of the Sultan to the acceptance of 
the religion of Rome, showed themselves disloyal to Helena 
the younger, who was obliged to withdraw, to Hungary 
first, and then to Rome, where she died as a nun in 1474. 

After the destruction of Servia, and its absorption by 
the Ottomans, came the turn of Bosnia, like Servia dis- 
turbed by disputes between vassal princes, which were taken 
advantage of by Mohammed. King Stephen's pro-Ro- 
man policy made him unpopular among his nobles; there- 
fore, when the Turk's army appeared, there was no great 
difficulty in overrunning the country. The King retired 
in a panic from his strongly fortified capital, and while 
in flight was captured and afterwards executed (1464). 
Herzegovina, which still remained in Christian hands, could 
not resist the successful aggression of the Turks, and its 
occupation took place three years after the annexation of 
Bosnia. As Bosnia was a vassal state of Hungary, its 
King, Matthias, found himself obliged to look to the safety 
of his territories. Scanderbeg, who was alarmed at the 
taking of Herzegovina, and Venice, as the mistress of all 
the cities in the Morea, had just begun to reahze the need 
of common action to protect their interests. 

On the part of the Hungarians war was waged on a 
small scale, but the Venetians employed a celebrated con- 
dottiere, Bertoldo d'Este, to head an expedition of thirty- 
two galleys and other ships armed by many thousand war- 
riors. After some initial successes, the aim of the expedi- 
tion failed, because of the death of Bertoldo while he was 
besieging the Turkish garrison at Corinth. Hitherto the 
steady advance of the Turks towards the south had been 



THE OTTOMANS 263 

furthered by the anarchy and divisions of the rival races, 
among which the Albanians and the Greeks showed the 
most vitality. In Athens the ducal Florentine line brought 
notoriety to its closing days by the romantic record of its 
last duchess, the wife of Nerio II, who, when left a widow 
with the guardianship of her young son, fell in love with 
Contarini, a Venetian officer in Naples. She promised 
to marry him if he would get rid of his wife. The con- 
dition was accepted, and the young officer, by marrying 
the duchess, became master of Athens. Those who had 
acknowledged the old duke as their overlord, resented the 
introduction of Venetian rule, and appealed to Moham- 
med to interfere. He bestowed the duchy on a mem- 
ber of the reigning Florentine house, Franco, who caused 
his aunt, the scandal-making duchess, to be imprisoned and 
afterwards murdered. The commission of this crime pro- 
duced discontent, and the Sultan gave orders to one of his 
captains to take possession of Athens. 

Mohammed himself took personal charge of the expedi- 
tion of 1458, which was conducted with great cruelty. 
The Albanians were especially singled out for savage 
reprisals. When Tarsos fell, the Albanian soldiers taken 
captive were horribly tortured, and at the capitulation of 
Corinth the leader of the Albanian contingent was sawn 
asunder. A short respite was at first granted to the Greek 
princes, members of the house of Paleologi, who were 
closely allied with the last Emperor of Constantinople, but 
they were finally dispossessed, and by the year 1460 noth- 
ing of Greece was left in the hands of the Christian powers 
except four Venetian strongholds. But these were not to 
be spared longer. 

In 1463 the Morea was ravaged by the Turkish army, 
and five hundred Venetian soldiers met death by being 
sawn apart. In 1467 the island of Euboea was attacked 
by both Ottoman fleet and land forces simultaneously. 
Great preparation was made for the defense of the Ve- 
netian citadel, but the plans were spoiled by the in- 
capacity of the commander of the Venetian fleet to defend 



264 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

the approach to the island from the sea. The besieged gar- 
rison showed great heroism, and even when they discovered 
that their leaders were preparing to betray them, they 
stoutly held out and inflicted severe losses on the Otto- 
mans. For reasons which are inexplicable, the Venetian 
fleet made no attempt to break down the bridge which con- 
nected the island with the continent ; the occupation of this 
passageway finally enabled the Janitschars to enter the 
city. Its heroic defender, Paolo Erizzo, met the fate of 
being sawn asunder, because, as a chronicle states, the 
Turks had promised to save his head but not his thighs. 

This heavy blow to Venice stirred the republic to a 
series of energetic reprisals. With her allies, the Neapoli- 
tans and the Knights of Rhodes, and aided by the Pope, 
she carried the war into Asia Minor. The town of Smyrna 
was occupied by the Venetian fleet, and the Seldjouk 
emirates, always ready to rebel against the Ottomans, were 
encouraged to revolt. When Lepanto was successfully pro- 
tected by the Venetian fleet, it was felt that Mohammed 
had at last encountered a power that was ready to con- 
test the imperial ambitions of Ottoman rule. But that 
there was no sufficient ground for over-confidence appeared 
when a Turkish general, Omar-beg, invaded Friuli, and 
began to ravage territories in the immediate neighborhood 
of Venice. A Venetian general fell fighting the Turks on 
the banks of the Isonzo, and the citizens of the republic 
could see with their own eyes the work of the Turks, as 
they burnt the villages that lie between the Isonzo and 
the Taghliamento. Scutari, however, withstood two Turk- 
ish sieges, though Mohammed himself took part in the 
operations. Finally, in 1479, Venice, deserted by her allies, 
was willing to arrange terms of peace. These involved the 
cession of Lemnos and certain possessions in Albania; but 
more significant of her humiliation was the payment of a 
war indemnity of 100,000 ducats, and the agreement to 
give an annual tribute of 110,000, in return for which 
sacrifices certain commercial advantages were conceded 
by the Turks. 



THE OTTOMANS 265 

Interpreting the treaty in its strictest sense, Mohammed, 
after arranging a peace with Venice, occupied the Ionian 
Islands, and soon afterwards showed his contempt for 
the mihtary powers of Western Europe by sending a fleet 
of 150 ships to Otranto in Apulia, a province of the king- 
dom of Naples. The town, entirely unprepared for such 
a raid, was taken in 1480; the garrison and the archbishop 
were put to death, and the neighboring country was or- 
ganized as a Turkish province with its capital at Otranto, 
where a garrison of 5000 Turkish soldiers was left 
behind. 

The alarm created by this feat of arms was instantaneous. 
The Italian cities united and soon expelled the Turks from 
the peninsula, rivaling their enemies in Asiatic deeds of 
cruelty. Mohammed could not prosecute the conquest 
of Italy, because his attention was necessarily divided by 
the troubled state of Turkish rule in Asia, where the 
Seldjouk principalities still claimed an autonomy which, 
on crucial matters, made them independent of the Sultan. 

In the north of Anatolia, which was directly in the 
hands of the Ottomans, there still remained the Empire 
of Trebizond, governed by a Greek prince, David Com- 
nenus. Part of his dominions, Sinope and Paphlagonia, 
were conquered in 1461, and then the last Emperor of 
Trebizond turned for help to his Turkoman ally, Hassan, 
ruler of Armenia and part of Persia. Mohammed struck 
at his foes rapidly. Marching on Erzeroum, he forced 
Hassan to sue for peace, and so the Greek Emperor was left 
to meet the Turks unaided. The city of Trebizond was 
effectively encircled by land and sea, and David was soon 
brought to surrender, and afterwards, with many members 
of his household, was put to death. Equally implacable 
was Mohammed to the Seldjoukian emirates. At the death 
of Ibrahim, the Prince of Karamania, the Sultan inter- 
vened, while seven claimants were disputing over the suc- 
cession, and after several campaigns annexed the emirate. 
Hassan's time soon came. Feeling the insecurity of his 
rule, he asked help of Rhodes and Venice, especially re- 



266 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

questing to be furnished with artillery, by the aid of which 
so many of the Ottoman victories were won. Two hundred 
Italian gunners were sent in answer to his call. In 1472 
he took the Ottoman town of Tokat, and sacked it. This 
act caused Mohammed to take up the war against him in 
person. The two armies met on July 26, 1473, ^t Out- 
louk-Bali, near Terdjan, where a decisive victory was won 
by the Sultan. All the prisoners taken were massacred. 
The Turkomans had no desire to contest further the pre- 
dominance of Ottoman rule, which was now extended with- 
out question over both Karamania and Anatolia. 

It must not be supposed, however, that Mohammed was 
always successful. Albania held out against him under the 
heroic leader Scanderbeg, whose earlier exploits have been 
already chronicled. His success against the Ottomans con- 
tinued without a break. Even when a nephew proved dis- 
loyal and brought an army of 40,000 Turks into the land, 
he rose up and smote the invaders after the manner of 
his earHer years (1461). For a time afterward peace 
prevailed; then, during the Venetian war, he stood as an 
ally of the republic. His old antagonist Mohammed had 
another opportunity of testing the valor of the Albanian 
chieftain at a decisive defeat of the Turkish army under 
the walls of Croia in 1465. Two years later Scanderbeg 
died at the age of sixty-seven, and his death was followed 
by civil strife. 

The rounding off of the Ottoman Empire, a process by 
which the vassal states were absorbed, put an end to the 
internal movements against centralized rule, and enabled 
the Sultan to work out his policy of systematic aggres- 
sion in the regions to the north. After the year 1470 Turk- 
ish armies ravaged Southern Hungary, Croatia, Carinthia, 
Styria, and Carniola; Belgrade, on account of its strong 
defensive position, was respected. In 1479 the Turks made 
an expedition in force into Transylvania, where, in the 
neighborhood of Hermannstadt, they burnt 200 villages. 
When they were on the point of withdrawing with their 
booty they were attacked on the Cornfields (Kenyermezo, 



THE OTTOMANS 267 

October 13), and suffered severe losses. Not more suc- 
cessful were the acts of aggression on Hungarian terri- 
tory in the following year; but the Hungarian King, 
Matthias, was satisfied with repulsing his enemies; he had 
no desire to prosecute the war against the Turks on a 
large scale, for he had none of the ambition or enthusiasm 
of his famous father, Hunyadi. 

In the Greek islands the activity of the Turkish fleet 
produced positive and permanent results ; Lesbos was taken 
in 1462, and to the list of Turkish successes in these years 
were soon added Lemnos, Imbros, Samothrace. Much 
more valiant defenders of their island were the Knights of 
Rhodes, whom the Sultan was especially desirous of pun- 
ishing for the part they had taken in the already mentioned 
Venetian expedition against Asia Minor. In 1480 a large 
Ottoman fleet of about one hundred ships appeared in sight 
of the island, and a bombardment was begun, but the 
fortifications proved too strong for the Turkish guns to 
make any impression, though the siege lasted from early 
in May till the end of August, in which time, despite the 
assaults made on the citadel, only one tower was taken. 
The Grand Master, Pierre d'Aubusson, and his brother, 
had prepared most intelligently for the crisis by collecting 
from all provinces of the Order money, which they used 
in providing weapons, especially cannon. They had been 
furnished also by the Pope, just before the siege began, 
with a large store of food and provisions. Finally, after 
a heroic defense of eighty-nine days, two NeapoHtan ships 
forced their way into the harbor and broke up the blockade. 

In the Wallachian lands the Ottomans met a redoubtable 
warrior, who, in the annals of the Roumanian people, takes 
such a high place as a champion against the Turks that 
the record of his deeds gives him a rank alongside Hun- 
yadi and Scanderbeg. Vlad, the Prince of Wallachia, 
1456-1462, called by the Hungarians the Devil, and with 
equal significance spoken of by the Turks as the Impaler, 
had a reputation for violence even among his own people. 
He repressed the internal troubles of his vassals with an 



268 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

iron hand; for after Mircea's death the country had gone 
through the same period of divisions and intrigues that 
is found with such frequency in all the Balkan lands, mak- 
ing them, as we have seen, an easy prey for the Ottoman, 

It is told how Vlad brought Wallachia to a peaceful 
state by the execution of 20,000 men, and how, afterwards, 
in the same drastic style, he resolved to put an end to the 
annual tribute of 500 children demanded by his overlord 
the Sultan. Looking for alHes in carrying on the resistance 
to Mohammed, he helped Stephen IV to secure the throne 
of Moldavia, and married a relative of Matthias, King of 
Hungary. Mohammed resolved to nip in the bud the in- 
dependent movements of his dangerous vassal, and sent 
a renegade Greek official, Catabolinus, with a corps of 
2000 Turks to depose Vlad and to replace him by his 
brother, Radu. Vlad, having surprised this small force, 
impaled all the prisoners he took; to the pasha who led 
them was accorded the honor of being impaled on the 
longest stake. After this outrage the Sultan sent three 
ambassadors to reinforce his demands; but, when the Mos- 
lem delegates refused to remove their turbans in his pres- 
ence, Vlad ordered their headgear to be nailed to their 
heads. 

This picturesque barbarity appealed to the imagination 
of the Turkish ruler, who, as an artist in cruelty, conceded 
that Vlad belonged to a class above him. When the Turk- 
ish sovereign made a punitive expedition to Bucharest, he 
found the approach to the town, half a mile long, lined 
with stakes, on which were rotting the bodies of 2000 
dead Turks. "How," Mohammed said, ''can we despoil of 
his estates a man who is not afraid to defend it by such 
means as these ? " Vlad hung on the invading army, al- 
ways inflicting losses, without showing himself long enough 
to be attacked in a formal battle. Using his familiarity 
with the Turkish language, he penetrated with some com- 
panions into the midst of the Turkish camp, and would 
have succeeded in murdering Mohammed himself, had not 
a mistake been made in selecting the tent. Instead of the 



THE OTTOMANS 269 

Sultan one of the pashas was killed. Though there are 
conflicting accounts as to the details of Vlad's versatility 
in defense, we know that Mohammed gave up his plan of 
aggression against Wallachia and returned to his capital, 
Adrianople. 

Vlad's career was cut short by the enmity of his neighbor 
the Moldavian King, Stephen, who, afraid of his influence, 
drove him from his throne, although he had relied on Vlad 
to promote his own interests when the Moldavian succession 
was in dispute. This was, of course, a gross error in states- 
manship, for the only possibility of resisting Turkish aggres- 
sion in these extreme Eastern lands of Europe depended 
on the close cooperation of Moldavia and Wallachia. If 
Wallachia were once occupied by the Turks, Moldavia's in- 
vasion was certain to be the next step. After Vlad's ex- 
pulsion, he took refuge at the court of Matthias of Hun- 
gary. 

His successor, Radu, was entirely devoted to Turkish 
interests; and soon after this change of rule in Wallachia, 
Stephen of Moldavia was able to seize the seaport town of 
Kilia, whose inhabitants were not unwilling to accept an 
overlord of better reputation than Radu, whose close rela- 
tions with the Sultan had made him an object of contempt 
(1465). In the hostiHties that followed between Matthias 
of Hungary and Stephen of Moldavia, the Hungarian King, 
who had taken up Vlad's cause, was beaten at the battle 
of Baia. Stephen then invaded Transylvania, captured 
Peter Aron, the pretender to the throne of Moldavia, and 
put him to death. Peace was restored with the Hungarians 
on terms that were advantageous to .Stephen, who received 
two fortresses. 

Not long after this Hungarian incident, which, like so 
many others, weakened the power of resistance to Turkish 
arms, Stephen invaded Wallachia with the intention of 
dethroning the Sultan's favorite, Radu. The Moldavian 
prince prepared for war against the Turks by entering into 
negotiations with the Venetians, who, as we have seen, 
were indefatigable in organizing a general league against 



270 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

Mohammed. An ambassador, who had been sent by the 
repubHc to secure the cooperation of the Persian King, 
Louzoun Hassan, visited Stephen, and proposed him as 
leader in organizing a holy league against the Ottomans, 
"in order," as he said, " that we may not be left alone to keep 
up the struggle against them." But before the Venetian 
envoy had passed beyond the Balkan lands, Mohammed's 
army, in great force, was already swarming over Moldavia. 
To meet them Stephen had only some 50,000 men, mostly 
of his own nation. With these and a few Hungarians he 
won a brilliant victory over 120,000 Turks at Rakova in 
1475, where he killed 20,000 men, took 100 standards, and 
many prisoners, including four pashas. Pursuing the de- 
feated army, he massacred a large part of them. A church 
was built to celebrate the battle, and a solemn fast was 
initiated, followed by the impaling of many Turkish pris- 
oners. This success of Stephen was celebrated as a unique 
feat of arms in Western Europe, and deservedly so, for 
the trained troops of Mohammed had been hewn down 
by a peasantry armed only with pikes, scythes, and 
axes. 

Stephen asked help from the Pope and from Venice to 
carry on the struggle ; but he got no aid, for the Venetians 
were worn out with the long war against their Eastern foes, 
and the Pope explained that all money for defense had been 
turned over to Matthias of Hungary, the overlord of the 
Moldavian King. Matthias, however, proposed to spend 
the money at home, as he dreaded the inevitable increase 
of Stephen's power if he were to inflict another decisive 
defeat on a Turkish army. When the Turks appeared 
again, the help of the peasant population could not be 
secured because they were simultaneously alarmed at the 
news of a Tartar invasion, said to have been timed to 
coincide with the passage of the Danube by the Turks. 

The Moldavian nobles, however, and their men-at-arms, 
made an heroic stand against Mohammed's army ; their can- 
non did such execution that the Janitschars threw them- 
selves on the ground to escape the rain of projectiles. 



THE OTTOMANS 271 

The Sultan was forced to lead his men in person to save 
the day. So stout was the stand the Christians made that 
the combat lasted far into the night. When most of his 
nobles had been slaughtered Stephen withdrew from this 
battle, which was fought at Razboieni, July 24, 1476. After 
he had been pursued to the forest country in the north 
of Moldavia, he was finally forced to withdraw to the 
inaccessible mountain regions. Here, with characteristic 
enterprise, he gathered together a second army, and the 
Turks, who already were exhausted by the strenuous cam- 
paign in a country ill provided with food, and ravaged 
as they were by disease, were easily driven back across 
the Danube. After this success Wallachia was invaded 
the same year by the Moldavian Boyars, who were joined 
by the Transylvanians under their new leader, Bathory. 
The pro-Turkish prince of the country was dethroned, and 
Vlad, the mighty hammerer of the Turks, now again an 
ally of Stephen, was replaced by the latter on the throne; 
but the veteran leader did not long survive his restora- 
tion. He died in December, 1477, near Bucharest, in a 
fight with the Turks, who attacked him as soon as Stephen 
had withdrawn to Moldavia. He was buried in a monastery 
founded by him at Snagov, but no inscription marked the 
resting place of the Christian champion. 

Mohammed's own reign was closed on the 3d of May, 
1481, in Anatolia. For some time, owing to his excessive 
weight, campaigning had been difficult and painful for him. 
In the latter years of his life he was often so incapacitated 
by gout that he was compelled to give up more than one 
important warlike expedition, and it was to this disease 
that his death was due. During his reign the Turkish Em- 
pire acquired much new territory ; Anatolia was occupied as 
far as the northern reaches of the Euphrates, and in 
Europe the Balkan peninsula was made subject to his 
arms as far as the Danube. Many successful expeditions 
were also made far beyond these limits, both on the east 
and on the west. But two great obstacles to Turkish ad- 
vance he failed to overcome: Rhodes and Belgrade, the 



272 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

latter stronghold commanding the Danube, while the for- 
mer was the key to the ^gean. 



VI 

SELIM AND SOULIMAN 

In the line of succession were two sons, Bajesid and 
Djem. Bajesid managed, by rapid marching, to reach 
Scutari before his brother, and was proclaimed Sultan. 
Djem, who had occupied Broussa, proposed a division of 
the empire, but Bajesid refused, and defeated Djem in a 
decisive battle, fought at Yeni-Chchir (1481). The de- 
feated brother took refuge first in Egypt, with the Sultan 
of the Mamelouks, and afterwards appeared as a suppliant 
at Rhodes, where the Grand Master, fearing to keep so 
valuable a hostage, sent him to France, where he remained 
for several years in captivity. Djem finally ended his 
life as a victim of the Borgia Pope, Alexander VI, who 
is charged with having murdered him to secure the favor 
of Bajesid. So long as Djem lived, Bajesid was wary of 
stirring up the enmity of Occidental Christendom; he 
feared the effect on the stability of his throne by the 
return of a pretender, backed up by Christian armies. He 
even refused to answer the appeal for aid sent him by the 
last King of Granada, only venturing to show ineffective 
sympathy by sending a fleet to cruise off the Spanish 
coast. 

Charles VIII of France, encouraged by his successful 
expedition into Italy, planned a new general crusade against 
the Turk, and secured promises of cooperation from vari- 
ous Western powers. He kept in touch with the Christian 
population of the Ottoman Empire, and even looked for- 
ward to taking the imperial throne of Constantinople by 
purchasing title deeds to it from the Paleologi family. 

After Djem's death, which was soon followed by that 
of Charles, the Sultan had a free hand. From 1492 to 



THE OTTOMANS 273 

1495 he warred with partial success against the Hun- 
garians; then came the turn of Venice, whose Itahan 
dominions again saw a Turkish army. In the Morea, also, 
the republic lost some of the few cities it still possessed. 
There Nauplia held out, but Modon, Navarino, and Coron 
passed into the possession of the Turks. Under Papal 
leadership, an anti-Ottoman league was formed, and the 
Christian fleet proved its prowess by destroying two Turk- 
ish flotillas and by ravaging the shores of Asia Minor. 

Internal troubles in Asia Minor, defeats in Hungary, and 
a long, troublesome war with the Sultan of Egypt brought 
the warlike enterprises of Bajesid to an end. The Sul- 
tan's sons through their dissensions darkened the close of 
his reign; all three rebelled. Of the three, the most suc- 
cessful in opposing his father's power was Selim, who 
won the Janitschars over to his side, and through their 
inter fer'ence was able to enter Constantinople in triumph, 
and there enforce his own conditions. Bajesid first of- 
fered large sums if Selim would withdraw to the Asiatic 
province, of which he was governor; finally he consented 
to accept him as heir and co-regent on the throne; but 
Selim had secured the influence of the troops, and they 
demanded the Sultan's immediate abdication. Bajesid was 
obhged to accede to their request, and only asked that he 
might be allowed to withdraw to die at Demotica, the place 
where he was born. The third day after his abdication 
he died. Because of its suddenness, his death, as was so 
often the case in those days, was said to be due to poison. 

Selim's path after his accession was anything but smooth ; 
the troops were not amenable to discipline, and there were 
a host of brothers and nephews, who were in no mood to 
accept him as their lord. Besides his own son, Souliman, 
there were ten princes who stood near the throne. All 
were taken and murdered. Though Selim affected to ex- 
plain their executions as due to reasons of state, his acts 
were severely judged by his contemporaries. The Turks 
called him " The Inflexible," while in the West he was en- 
titled " The Savage." Foscolo, the Venetian, described him 



274 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

as the crudest of men, " a man who dreams only of con- 
quests and wars." He was a well-educated man who 
favored the pursuit of Hterature, and it was said that the 
only individual who was ever able to induce him to re- 
voke a death sentence was the grand mufti, Ali Djemali. 
His viziers felt the implacable nature of their master; 
seven of them were executed, for whenever the soldiers 
were restless the vizier was made a victim of the Sultan's 
discontent. According to an old report one of them only 
agreed to accept the dangerous office after Selim had 
beaten him with his own hands. Intractable at home, Selim, 
so far as Europe was concerned, proved a pacific prince, 
his name being recorded only in connection with one ex- 
pedition against the Christians. His Christian vassals, too, 
were left undisturbed; all that he exacted from them was 
the payment of a regular tribute. To the Moslem dis- 
senters in Persia of the Shiite sect, he showed himself an 
implacable persecutor, all the more because his animosity 
was excited by the encouragement given to his rebellious 
brother Ahmed and his three sons by Ismail, the master 
of Persia. Ismail also negotiated an alHance with the 
Sultan of Egypt against the Osmanlis. Selim began in 
his own provinces by organizing a systematic massacre of 
the schismatics. Then followed a holy war against the 
Shah, in 15 13, in which Selim led an army of 140,000 war- 
riors; and after three campaigns, in one of which a great 
pitched battle was fought at Tchaldiran (August 24, 
1 5 14), he extended the domains of the Ottoman far to the 
east, bringing to submission Georgia and Kurdistan, and 
overrunning Mesopotamia and the parts of Syria that were 
controlled by the Moslem lord of Egypt. 

By the expansion of his empire in this direction he soon 
came into conflict with the Sultan of the Mamelouks. 
Aleppo was taken, and, when Selim entered the city, he 
was hailed in the great mosque as the guardian of the two 
holy cities of Mecca and Medina, a title which gave the 
Ottoman Sultan almost the rank of the Khali f of the faith- 
ful. Damascus also fell into his hands, and so rapid were 



THE OTTOMANS 275 

the successes of the Ottomans, that early in the year 15 17 
Selim found himself within sight of Cairo. The Mame- 
louks made an heroic resistance; protected by their coats 
of mail they charged into the center of the Turkish posi- 
tion, killing the vizier and ten generals. But here, as so 
often, the superiority of the Turks in artillery decided the 
day, and Cairo was taken after a prolonged and desperate 
struggle. Selim proclaimed an amnesty in favor of the 
Mamelouks ; 500 of them, trusting in the conqueror's prom- 
ises, surrendered and were decapitated, and '50,000 of 
the citizens of Cairo were massacred. Touman, who led 
the Egyptian forces, was finally taken and hanged. 

Egypt was allowed to retain its ancient organization, with 
its irregular force, the Mamelouks, and its twenty-four 
Begs as military commanderies ; but the direction of the 
government was placed in the hands of the Ottoman Pasha. 
With the possession of Egypt Selim became lord of Yemen, 
its dependency, and so exercised actual control over the 
holy places of the Moslem faith. At Cairo he had found 
a sheik, an obscure and neglected personage, called Elmo- 
stansir-bi-illah, who was reputed to be in the direct line of 
descent from the second branch of the Abbassides Khalifs. 
Selim kept him in confinement until, on the promise of se- 
curing his liberty, and for a small money payment and a 
pension, he agreed to transfer to the Turkish ruler all his 
claims to the Khalifate. 

Selim's victories made a great impression. Venice, whose 
commercial interests were affected, sent ambassadors to 
Cairo to arrange for paying the tribute that was due to 
the Sultan of Egypt for the island of Cyprus. Hungary 
asked to have the truce prolonged between the two powers, 
and the Shah of Persia sent gifts and congratulations. 
Selim died on September 22, 1520, while he was preparing 
for an expedition against the island of Rhodes. He was 
succeeded by his only son, Souliman, a ruler whose long reign, 
from 1520 to 1566, makes him a contemporary of the great 
European leaders of the sixteenth century, a fact which 
Paul Veronese recognized when he placed him in his cele- 



276 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

brated painting, " The Marriage at Cana," along with the 
chief sovereigns of the day. 

As the lines of expansion in the East and in Africa had 
been closed by the remarkable achievements of Selim, 
Souliman's hands were free to take up the traditional line 
of aggressive progress of Turkish power. Hungary was 
attacked on the ground that the payment of tribute was 
refused. In 1521, after two important battles, Belgrade 
was besieged by the Sultan; the fate of the city was de- 
cided by the defection of its Servian and Bulgarian allies. 
Twenty assaults were made, and there were only 400 able- 
bodied men in the garrison, when a mutiny among the in- 
habitants forced the town to capitulate on August 29, 
1521. 

The conquest of Rhodes, the center of Christian re- 
sistance in the East, was now not long delayed. A large 
navy of 200 vessels appeared off the island with a sum- 
mons to the grand master, Villiers de I'lsle Adam, to sur- 
render. Souliman had collected an army of 100,000 men 
to undertake the siege, but the defenders were not terrified. 
Every assault made on the great bastions of the citadel 
caused enormous losses among the Turks; but their pro- 
longed artillery fire and the new supplies of men, drawn 
constantly from Asia, showed the mere handful of de- 
fenders that their struggle could have only one outcome. 
In December, 1522, the island capitulated on terms that 
were favorable to the heroic defenders; even the Sultan 
appreciated the tragedy, for he is recorded to have said to 
his favorite Ibrahim, that he was loath to force this Chris- 
tian commander, in his old age, to leave his house and his 
goods. 

The next field of Souliman's military enterprise was 
Persia, where the Shah, by the defection of an Ottoman 
official, had recovered some of the territory taken by SeHm. 
Souliman, appearing with a large force, received the sub- 
mission of many of the Shah's vassals, and, after a long 
march to the East, during which his cannon had to be 
abandoned, entered the ancient capital of the Khalifate, 



• SVII1Y/AAM*A1N*KAISER?DER:TIRCKEI* 




Lli^OobilirLom 






















SULEYMAN THE MAGNIFICENT 
(In Youth.) 



THE OTTOMANS 277 

Bagdad, in 1535. But several other campaigns were re- 
quired to establish definite possession of. the country. 
Finally, after many victories, peace was signed at Amasia, 
on the 29th of May, 1555, a step which impUed that the 
Sunnite Turks acknowledged the legitimacy of a Shiite 
monarchy. In the mountains of Armenia and Kurdistan 
the extension of Ottoman power encountered serious ob- 
stacles. Native chieftains and princes followed their own 
caprices and their own interests in changing their allegiance 
to Shah or Sultan. There was constant guerrilla warfare, 
without any notable advantage to Turkish arms. In the 
southern regions at the confluence of the Tigris and the 
Euphrates, the Ottoman power was firmly established; 
Turkish vessels were to be seen now in the Red Sea and 
the Persian Gulf. Aden was occupied and the control of 
Yemen made effective. But the chief effort of Souliman 
was directed against the King of Hungary and the Em- 
peror Charles V. A curious and novel development of 
European diplomacy was seen, when Francis I, the French 
King, appealed to the Sultan in his difficulties, after his 
defeat at the hands of Charles in Italy. SouHman sent a 
gracious message assuring the imprisoned monarch of his 
support, and spoke of his own throne as the refuge of 
the world ; " night and day," he added, *' our horse is saddled 
and our sword girded." In 1526 the Sultan marched from 
his capital to give battle to Charles, the " hated head of 
the infidels," with an army of 100,000 men and 300 can- 
non. There was a great battle with the Hungarian troops 
at Mohacs (August 28, 1526). After a hot engagement 
of two hours, the Christians left on the field 20,000 foot 
and 400 horse, and of the prisoners 400 were put to death. 
A few days after the battle Buda surrendered to the 
Turks, and the Hungarian kingdom was harried by the 
Turkish irregular forces. Everywhere they went, their 
path was marked by massacre. Ten thousand captives 
were taken, and the result of the campaign was almost the 
disappearance of Hungary as an independent Christian 
kingdom, because, after the taking of Buda, Souliman called 



278 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

to him the Hungarian nobles and settled who should be 
their king. The kingdom was now rent by factions, some 
of the nobles siding with the Sultan's candidate, John 
Zapolya, while others accepted Ferdinand, the brother of 
Charles V. When Zapolya appeared at Constantinople, be- 
cause of the failure of his faction to support his claims, 
the Sultan, after securing from him a formal engagement 
as vassal, undertook to place him on the Hungarian throne. 
The promise was more than made good. In October, 1529, 
the Turks appeared before the walls of Vienna with 
250,000 men and 300 cannon. To defend the city there 
were only 16,000 men and 70 pieces of artillery. But the 
defense was conducted with such spirit and intelligence 
that the Turkish army was compelled to withdraw. When 
winter approached, the extent of the ravages of the Turkish 
arms was marked by attacks on Regensburg and Brunn. 
Later on, another expedition was made into Styria, where 
the country suffered terrible devastations. 

Under the stress of these alarms the powers of Western 
Europe, irrespective of religious differences, banded together 
to resist the enemy. Even Francis I was concerned at 
the rapidity of the success of his ally, the Sultan, and sent 
an ambassador to Constantinople to entreat Souliman to 
hold his hand. Finally, owing to the difficulties with Persia, 
the Sultan agreed to sign a treaty of peace with Hungary in 
1533, by which Ferdinand was allowed to hold the land 
already occupied by him. But the war with Charles V, 
and with his ally, Venice, still went on, chiefly a contest 
at sea between the Turkish admiral, Kheir-ed-Din, and his 
Venetian antagonist, Andrew Doria, without decisive re- 
sults, except the capture of many of the Venetian islands 
in the ^gean. In 1541 steps were taken, when dissen- 
sions arose again in Hungary between the heirs of Zapolya 
and Ferdinand, to make the conquest of part of the country 
effective. A Turkish pasha-lik was formed, with Buda 
as its capital, and for 147 years Buda remained an Otto- 
man city. Further conquests were made of Van, or Stuhl- 
weissenburg, the city where the Hungarian kings were 



THE OTTOMANS 279 

consecrated, and Vychegrad, where the royal crown of 
Hungary was kept. Owing to the valor of the people 
there were repeated efforts on the part of the Hungarians 
to renew resistance to the Ottoman domination. A treaty 
was made in 1567, when the aged Sultan, worn out by 
constant warfare, was willing to concede to the Emperor 
Ferdinand an arrangement for the payment of an annual 
tribute. Although peace was formally declared, disturb- 
ances on the frontier still continued, and the seas were not 
free from acts of piracy. 

As Spain had not been included in the treaty of 1562, a 
Spanish flotilla of twenty-two ships was destroyed near the 
island of Djerba, which had previously been seized by 
Spain. Not long afterwards a Turkish armada of 191 
vessels sailed against the island of Malta, with the purpose 
of bringing to the home of the Knights Hospitalers the 
ruin that had already been inflicted at Rhodes on their 
brethren. For four months the siege lasted, costing the 
assailants nearly 20,000 men. Dragut, the Turkish com- 
mander, was slain, and finally, on September 11, 1565, the 
undertaking was abandoned as hopeless, and the Turkish 
armament withdrew. 

Souliman's days were brought to an end in the midst of 
the siege of a Hungarian town, Sziget, one of the many 
events of the frontier warfare carried on without inter- 
mission, irrespective of the treaty between the heads of the 
two states. His death was carefully concealed from his 
men for fear of discouraging them in their assaults on the 
citadel of the town, which was being heroically defended by 
Zriny. Three days after the Sultan's death, on the 8th 
of September, 1566, only the central tower of the fort 
was left in the hands of the Hungarian champion. He 
loaded up his cannon to the muzzle, and in the smoke of 
the cannonade rushed into the thick of the Turkish lines 
and perished. He had taken care to arrange for the blow- 
ing up of the powder magazine at the time he made his 
sortie. The great tower fell in ruins, burying in the 
debris 3000 Turks. Souliman, in his life of seventy-one 



28o THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

years, had personally led sixteen campaigns against the 
Christians; despite gout and physical weakness he would 
not hand over to a lieutenant the work of wiping out on 
the battlefield the stigma inflicted on Turkish arms by the 
failure at Malta. 



VII 

THE DECLINE OF THE OTTOMANS 

In the expansion of their empire the main characteristic 
of the Ottomans had been fidelity to their tribal origin in 
Asia and to their religion; they showed little elasticity in 
modifying their system of government to new conditions, 
but they did recognize the necessity of progress. After 
their conversion to Mohammedanism their supreme guide 
was the " cheriat," under which term is signified the re- 
ligious law of orthodox Moslems in the threefold divi- 
sion of Koran, Sunna, and the Sentences. In addition to 
this, there were the various official interpretations from 
the Sultan's hand in the application of the law called the 
Kanoun. So much importance had this aspect of the Sul- 
tan's functions that Souliman is remembered under his 
title of El Kanouni, that is, as a Turkish Justinian, rather 
than as a great military leader. 

As head of the Empire, the Sultan's various titles are 
significant of the progressive stages of Ottoman develop- 
ment from a tribe to a great world power. The sovereign 
was still called Khan, as the head of a Turkish nomadic 
horde. When the Turks were converted to Islam, there 
was first added the title emir, an Arabic word, Chief of 
Believers; then came the name sultan, king; after the 
conquest of Constantinople, the Persian term padishah, 
king of kings, came into use. As we have seen, the con- 
quest of Syria, of Egypt, and Arabia, made the Sultan de- 
fender of the holy cities and khalif. 

After the conquest of the capital of the Caesars, the in- 



THE OTTOMANS 281 

fluence of Byzantine traditions introduced a rigid system 
of court ceremonial ; the days of patriarchal simplicity were 
closed; the person of the Sultan was raised in dignity. 
The change is clearly indicated in an edict by Mohammed : 
" It is not my will that anyone should eat with my im- 
perial majesty; our ancestors were wont to eat with their 
ministers, but I have abolished it." The influence of the 
Byzantine bureaucratic hierarchy can be traced in the 
method of Ottoman administration; even in small details 
the permanence of the Roman imperial tradition is note- 
worthy. The sovereign's documents were, like those of 
his Greek predecessors, written in gold, purple, and azure. 
His letters of victory are but a continuation of the " litterae 
laureatae," while the bakkchich given to the Janitschars is 
but a reminiscence of the Imperial donation. 

But actual assimilation between the Turks and their sub- 
ject peoples was prevented by difference of religion. Racial 
differences made no distinction between Greeks, Albanians, 
Slavs, and Roumanians; they were all orthodox Christians, 
while the same people, if they became converts to Islam, 
were turned into Ottomans. The two types of religious 
allegiance were mutually irreconcilable. The pecuHarity 
of Ottoman absolutism is to be found in the exclusion from 
governmental offices both of the free Moslem and the free 
Christian subjects of the Empire. The administration from 
top to bottom was in the hands of slaves, and these slaves 
were largely recruited from the children of Christian fami- 
lies of the subject races, who were constantly exposed to a 
detestable and unnatural form of oppression. The con- 
quered populations were ruled despotically by men of Chris- 
tian birth, who, during their initiation into slavery, had be- 
come Moslems. The famous Admiral Dragut was the son of 
a Christian of Asia Minor. Many of the famous generals 
were taken from Christian Albanian, Bosnian, and Dalma- 
tian families. Of forty-eight grand viziers, only twelve 
were of Moslem birth. 

Many Christians also became renegades, since an easy 
road to fortune was opened to them in this way. The 



282 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

hardy, adventurous, and less scrupulous elements of the 
conquered races accepted the religion of their conquerors; 
even a Paleologus, one of the last descendants of the im- 
perial line, became a Moslem. There were conversions on a 
large scale, accomplished without special pressure among 
the landed proprietors, who were warriors by tradition, 
and who refused to endure the restrictions placed upon 
them by their religious profession. 

The absolutism of the Sultan allowed no rival in any 
of the religious dignitaries of Islam. Even the Cheikh-ul- 
Islam had no authority over the Sultan; though the su- 
preme ecclesiastical dignitary, he was only an authoritative 
expert in the law, the head of the body of oulemas, whose 
opinions could, if necessary, be passed over. At the same 
time the Cheikh-ul-Islam's advice carried weight, and we 
sometimes hear of ambassadors being protected from the 
rage of the Sultan by his intervention. Legally, the Sul- 
tan was altogether above the law, or, rather, outside of it; 
he had the right to execute his brothers and children " if 
the peace of the world required it." 

While women in the household of the Padishah played 
no conspicuous role, there were exceptions to the rule. 
Under the institution of the harem the Sultan's wives were 
slaves, and frequently domestic discords that had an in- 
fluence on the destiny of the Empire were the result of 
harem intrigues. Often the sons of the Sultan were chil- 
dren of different parents. It was remarked in the time of 
Souliman that one of his wives, Roxelane, perhaps a Rus- 
sian, acquired great ascendency over him. The Venetian 
ambassador reported that Souliman, contrary to the custom 
of his ancestors, had taken her for his legitimate wife. 
She became practically an empress, and was responsible 
for the Sultan's policy on several occasions. The war with 
Persia and the undermining of the power of the grand 
vizier were due to her. 

As to the army, it kept the basis marked out for it 
by Ala-ed-Din. The elite body of the Janitschars still 
formed the chief protection of the Sultan's power. From 



THE OTTOMANS 283 

the regular tribute of blood only Constantinople, Athens, 
Rhodes, a few other islands, and the Mainotes, the Laconian 
mountaineers, were exempted. Every five years the officers 
of the Sultan passed through the villages where children of 
the peasants were collected, and each fifth one was taken. 
Oftentimes Christian families were glad to pay the exaction 
even before the tax collectors appeared. Many of the mem- 
bers of the corps preserved traces of their early faith, and 
so drank wine without scruple. The solidarity of the body 
was maintained by exceptional privileges; their pay was 
large; they had a special share of the booty, or regular 
donatives, and the assurance of a pension for old age. The 
Janitschars were forbidden to marry or to engage in any 
trade. They could be punished only by their own officers, 
and even the grand vizier had no jurisdiction over them. 
In the time of Souliman they numbered 12,000, and as their 
numbers increased their turbulence grew. Selim attempted 
to meet this difficulty by incorporating in their body 7000 
of the palace servants, and by dividing the command. 

In the government of the subject peoples no uniformity 
was observed. The inhabitants of mountain regions, the 
Albanians, the Montenegrins, the Mainotes, the dwellers 
on Mt. Libanus, were protected from tyrannical actions. 
Where the country was level, there were no bounds to the 
barbarity of Turkish governmental methods. The vassal 
states, such as Transylvania, Moldavia, Georgia, were still 
ruled by native princes. But under Ottoman rule, in spite 
of the constant wars and the attendant anarchic conditions, 
there was worked out a crude kind of unity throughout 
the Empire. At least, with an Ottoman overlord, there 
prevailed a condition of internal peace between the various 
portions of the Empire, that gave stability to commercial 
relations and rendered communication easy between dis- 
tant parts. Religious persecution in the sense in which 
it had existed in the Byzantine Empire, and in the Eastern 
domains of the Italian municipalities, was now unknown. 
At Rhodes the Greeks preferred the new regime to the 
rule of the Knights Hospitalers, who, as Latins, had 



284 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

showed no sympathy with the Orthodox Church. In Crete 
and Greece the Turks were more popular as masters than 
the Venetians: and the Servians, Hungarians, and Rouma- 
nians preferred Moslem control to that of Catholic Austria. 

Economically, the substitution of Turkish for Byzantine 
rule was a benefit to the Greek industrial population, who 
were better protected against foreign competition than they 
had ever been. Customs duties were arranged by an ad 
valorem scale, under which the Italian merchants were 
taxed four and a half times as much as the native Chris- 
tians, although these, in turn, paid more than the Moslem 
traders who were favored by the Ottoman government. The 
Greek parts of the Empire entered upon an era of pros- 
perity such as had not been seen since before the Latin 
conquest of Constantinople. For example, a large colony 
of Greeks established themselves at Ancona, where, in 
1549, they transacted business to the annual value of 
500,000 ducats. Moreover, the persecution of the Moors 
and Jews of Spain brought much capital into Ottoman ter- 
ritory; soon there were numbered 30,000 Spanish Jews at 
Constantinople, and 15,000 to 20,000 at Salonica. On this 
commercial basis the national renascence of the Greek peo- 
ples was founded. The landed proprietors of their own 
race mostly became Moslems, while their scholars and 
literary men found a refuge in the Occident; but the 
traders made and kept a place for themselves. Hence there 
was created a new center in which the old ideals of an 
independent Greek nationality could grow. 

The Slav peoples were much worse oflf than the Greek 
population, because over their provinces were scattered 
Turkish garrisons, and through them passed the roads used 
by the Sultan for the interminable expeditions into Hun- 
gary. They retained fewer traces of autonomous exist- 
ence, and their clergy were more ignorant than the Greek. 
The higher ecclesiastical positions were never bestowed on 
Slavs, and their landed gentry mostly became Moslem. 
The Roumanians, who were more remotely situated, pre- 
served, under the form of vassalage, a complete national 



THE OTTOMANS 285 

organization. They paid a moderate tribute, and were 
obliged to furnish military contingents, but there were no 
Turks in their territory, and no mosques were built among 
them. Wallachia and Moldavia, in the time of Souliman, 
made more than one attempt to throw off Turkish rule, 
but both principalities were compelled to submit before 
the middle of the sixteenth century. 

The Turkish conquest of North Africa begins, strictly 
speaking, with the resistance of the Moslem Berber tribes 
and princes to the extension of Spanish influence over the 
African Mediterranean coast towns. This was a primary 
object of Charles V, who was bent on following up, by his 
control of sea power, the expulsion of the Moors from 
Spain. After many vicissitudes, Kheir-ed-Din, who had a 
powerful rival supported by the Spaniards, became King 
of Algiers. He turned to ask help from the Sultan of 
Constantinople, Selim, and he offered, in return, to be- 
come his vassal and to incorporate his small kingdom as 
an integral part of the Ottoman Empire. 

Selim sent to Kheir-ed-Din 2000 Janitschars, well realiz- 
ing the importance of using Algiers to block the progress 
of Charles V in his North African ambitions. Four thou- 
sand men were also recruited in Anatolia to defend the 
Moslem cause. It was a critical time, when the Viceroy 
of Sicily (15 19), at the head of an armada of forty ships, 
appeared off Algiers. The Spaniards were beaten off, and 
many of the ships were lost in a storm. An even greater 
success for Moslem arms was the conquest, ten years later, 
of the citadel of Penon, which commanded the harbor of the 
city that had for long been in the hands of the Spaniards. 
The island on which it stood was, by instructions from 
Kheir-ed-Din, joined to the mainland, and so an impreg- 
nably fortified harbor was constructed, which turned Al- 
giers into the lasting home of those Barbary pirates that 
were for so long the plague of the Mediterranean commerce. 

^^ i535j Tunis was captured by Charles V in person, 
that monarch's great expedition of 400 ships and 30,000 
men having proved too strong for Kheir-ed-Din, who 



286 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

had hurried to save the place with only 9000 men. At 
Algiers, the Emperor's next objective, Kheir-ed-Din could 
not take part personally in the work of defense, since he 
was not kept in command of the Turkish fleet. The gov- 
ernment of Algiers was turned over to Hassan Aka, no 
idle leader. The Christian Emperor's armada was cal- 
culated to inspire terror; when it gathered at Spezzia, in 
August, 1 541, it numbered 65 galleys and 451 transports, 
ready to embark the 29,000 troops, German, Italian, and 
Spanish, and the members of the Knights of Malta. In 
addition to the Emperor, who was in command, there were 
a large number of high officers of the various arms, 
and members of the nobihty from Charles V's wide 
domains. 

To oppose this brilliant host, Hassan had only 800 Turks, 
5000 Moors, some Moriscos from Spain, and a few rene- 
gades from the Island of Majorca. There were rumors of 
treachery on the part of Hassan, but when the actual at- 
tack was made, nothing was left undone by him to keep 
up an effective resistance. He was helped by a severe 
storm, which caused much damage to the fleet ; many ships 
were driven ashore, where the crews were attacked and the 
cargoes seized. An attempt to attack one of the forts by 
which the city was defended failed; the imperial troops 
got near the walls, but no farther; even the heroism of 
the Knights of Malta failed to save the day. The Spanish 
admiral, Doria, insisted that the expedition should reim- 
bark, as his ships could not hold their anchorage. No 
other attempt on such a scale was made to arrest the 
progress of the Turkish vassal powers in North Africa. 
Tripoli was conquered in 1556, and there was incessant 
warfare with the Sherif of Fez, and also with the Spaniards, 
who still continued to hold Oran. 

After the death of Hassan, the Turkish Beglerbeg at 
Algiers was Euldj-AH, the son of a Calabrian fisherman. 
He had given up his faith and become one of the most 
dreaded Corsairs in the Mediterranean. He promoted the 
revolt of the Spanish Moriscos, afterwards winning a 



THE OTTOMANS 287 

great success at Tunis, where, in 1573, Don John of Austria 
had brought 27,000 men to defend the Spanish citadel in 
the harbor. Euldj gathered an overwhelming force, took 
Goletta, and massacred the Spanish garrison. By this de- 
cisive victory Tunis became the seat of a Turkish pashalik. 
His next step was to make the throne of Morocco dependent 
on the Sultan. 

The government of these African provinces was strictly 
centralized; over the whole was a Beglerbeg, who trans- 
mitted to his subordinates the directions which he received 
from Stamboul. The military strength of the provinces 
was remarkable, notwithstanding the unimportant part 
played by the regular Turkish soldiers. In their place 
there were regiments of renegades, Kabyles, and merce- 
naries of many nationalities. The navy was made up of 
corsairs, organized in a kind of guild, whose members made 
a life business of hazardous expeditions on the sea for the 
purpose of plundering vessels or harrying coast towns. 
No effort was made to interfere with the local customs 
of the tribes in the interior. All that was asked by the 
Beglerbeg was free passage for military expeditions and 
the payment of a large tribute. 

Turkish rule was maintained with a very small display 
of military power. The whole country was controlled by 
little more than 15,000 men, most of them in a small num- 
ber of garrison towns. Scattered through the country were 
small divisions of soldiers, whose chief business was the 
collection of the tribute. For the purposes of local govern- 
ment there were artificial tribes made up of natives, placed 
under the authority of a sheik or religious personage. The 
government of Algiers gave these groups certain landed 
concessions, and they paid some small dues to the sheik. 
They were expected to support soldiers or travelers when 
these appeared in their territory. They lived in tents or 
huts along a highway and the principal group was called a 
konak. In addition there were the real tribes, of warlike 
temper, that had once been independent; they paid no tax 
on their land or herds, but they had the function of col- 



288 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

lecting the tribute from inferior tribes called raias. This 
recognized position was enough to secure their loyalty. 

The Algerian corsairs became famous for their ravages 
in the narrow seas, for their ships were models for speed 
and lightness, and their crews worked under the strictest 
discipline. Each vessel carried soldiers, cannon, and artil- 
lerymen. The merchant vessels they seized were brought 
back to Algiers, where the passengers, crews, and cargoes 
were sold at auction. These undertakings proved most 
profitable to the captains, " Reis," who built themselves a 
quarter of the town, where they lived in houses resembhng 
fortresses, since their captives were kept in these build- 
ings (bagni) until they could be sold. So was formed a 
Barbary aristocracy, which ended by winning its inde- 
pendence from Turkish rule. Among the corsairs were 
many renegades, especially Italians. 

Algiers developed from a small town to a city of 100,000 
souls. Many of the captives gave up Christianity and won 
their freedom. With such elements it is not surprising that 
the hold of the Turks on the inhabitants became weak- 
ened, until finally, not long after Greece won its freedom, 
Algiers was conquered by the French in the reign of Louis 
Philippe. 

After the death of Souliman the Ottoman Sultanate un- 
derwent an eclipse. The succession of strong rulers was 
broken, and the empire was largely under the direction of 
the women of the harem and slaves. Of the eight succes- 
sors of Souliman, one only can be called a military leader; 
many were mere children when they were called to the 
throne. Even Murad IV (1623-40), the most active of 
all, took the title of Sultan when he was twelve years old, 
and his career ended when he was twenty-eight. But 
even under such unfavorable conditions the progress of 
Turkish conquests was not arrested. 

Of the western powers, the chief rival of the Ottoman 
Empire, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, 
was Venice. At the cost of a yearly tribute of 236,000 
ducats, she enjoyed great commercial privileges, was mis- 



THE OTTOMANS 289 

tress of possessions in the Levant and on the Dalmatian 
coast, and blocked the way to complete Ottoman domina- 
tion. Though Rhodes had been taken from the Knights, 
as we have seen, the large islands of Cyprus and Crete 
were still in the hands of the republic of the Adriatic, and 
her possessions in the ^Egean Sea were a constant source 
of annoyance to the Turkish lords of the Morea. Piracy 
flourished in these ports, which became centers of retalia- 
tion for the excesses of the Barbary corsairs. 

Aggressive measures were taken by Selim, Souliman's 
successor, who, after long years of peace between the two 
powers, summoned Venice, in 1570, to surrender the 
Island of Cyprus. One hundred and seventy-one Otto- 
man galleys supported the demand. Venice had tried to 
get the Christian powers to cooperate against the Turks, 
even calling on the Persians and the Arab tribes of Yemen 
to aid her in the defense of the island. But the arms 
of the Turkish generals soon prevailed. The chief fortress 
of the island, Famagusta, capitulated in 1571; and with 
its fall the Turks began the occupation of the island, which 
only ended after the war between Turkey and Russia in 
1878. 

During the progress of the siege an anti-Turkish league 
had been completed, composed of Venice and the Papacy, 
Spain, the Knights of Malta, and many Italian states. The 
result was the despatch of a large .fleet under the com- 
mand of Don John of Austria, at this time a youth of 
only twenty-two years. The objective of the armada was 
Patras, because, in the Gulf of Lepanto, close at hand, all 
of the squadrons of the Turkish navy were assembled. 
In all, the allies had 208 ships of war, the Ottomans slightly 
more, but the weakness of the Turks was due to the lack 
of soldiers to defend their fleet. There were but 2500 
Janitschars on their galleys, the rest were troops raised 
from continental Greece, 22,000 in all, who were either 
new recruits or were not trained for naval warfare. Among 
the Turkish captains were present many older men who 
desired to avoid conflict with the Christian armada. Of a 



290 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

different temper were Hassan Pasha, the son of the famous 
Kheir-ed-Din, and AH-Muezzin-Zade, the new captain 
pasha of the whole fleet. 

The Christian fleet was in an admirable state of prepara- 
tion for the fight. It was composed entirely of armed 
vessels directed by skilful rowers; besides the 203 galleys 
there were six galiasses, great floating citadels carrying 
heavy artillery and 500 soldiers. Don John had also armed 
the Venetian vessels with contingents of Spanish infantry. 
On the side of the Christians there was the additional 
advantage of superior equipment in armor and weapons 
for the individual warrior. The soldiers wore helmets and 
breastplates, and were armed with arquebuses, while the 
Turks used lances and arrows. There were also superior 
numbers on the side of the allies, the fighting men number- 
ing between 28,000 and 29,000. 

The two fleets took up the same position and adopted 
the same tactics. In the center on each side were col- 
lected the largest ships under the command of the respective 
chief admirals. Some initial successes were won by the 
Ottomans over the division made up of the Venetian ves- 
sels, but in the center, after desperate fighting, the men 
under Don John, owing to their superior weapons, got the 
better of their enemies, and the captain pasha was killed. 
The Algerian vessels showed much tactical superiority to 
the Christian right wing, under the command of John An- 
drew Doria; but, although they inflicted much damage, 
they could not save the day for the Ottomans. The vic- 
tory cost the Christians dear, for they lost 12 galleys and 
7500 men. But the defeat of the Turks was overwhelm- 
i'^gJ 15 galleys were sunk, 177 were captured, and many 
pashas and governors of provinces lost their lives; 12,000 
to 15,000 of the galley slaves on the Turkish vessels. Chris- 
tian captives, were set free. 

Such was the remarkable victory of October 7, 1571, re- 
markable not only for the heroism displayed, and the sen- 
sation caused by the success of the Christians, who had 
for so long been incapable of resisting Ottoman aggres- 



THE OTTOMANS 291 

sion, but also because of the small practical results pro- 
duced. The Christian armada returned to Corfu, and from 
there made for the coast of Italy, where it disbanded. 
On the side of the vanquished, Euldj-Ali, gathering to- 
gether eighty-seven ships as a nucleus for a new Ottoman 
fleet, sailed into the harbor of Constantinople, and was 
welcomed as a conqueror by the Sultan and the grand 
vizier, Sokoli. New honors were heaped upon him, not 
altogether undeserved, for during the winter a new fleet, 
larger and better armed than the one destroyed, was made 
ready for sea. 

The recuperative energy of the Ottoman Empire was 
not lost on the Venetians, and their agent at Constanti- 
nople, Antonio Barbaro, saw that there was more than an 
empty boast in the words of the Vizier, who said to him, 
" There is a great difference between your loss and ours. 
By taking from you the Kingdom of Cyprus we have cut 
off your arm ; by defeating our fleet you have only shaved 
our beard. A beard grows out thicker for being shaven." 
This argument appealed to the republic, and in 1573 peace 
was made. The conditions were the cession of Cyprus, 
the payment of a heavy war indemnity by Venice, and 
a regulation of the frontier in Albania and Dalmatia, that 
secured to the Turks their ancient possessions there. The 
Venetians also were required to increase the annual tribute 
exacted for the Island of Zante, which was still in their 
hands. 

Three generations after the taking of Cyprus the long- 
coveted island of Crete, or Candia, was annexed to the 
Ottoman Empire. Hostilities began between Venice and 
Sultan Ibrahim I, because of the seizure by the Knights 
of Malta of a Turkish vessel carrying high officials of the 
court to Egypt. The Maltese ships were received in the 
friendly harbors of Crete, where they took refuge. In 
April, 1645, a great fleet of 302 ships, and a large army of 
over 100,000 men, commanded by a Dalmatian, Pasha 
Joseph Markovitch, set sail for Crete. In June, one of the 
two chief fortresses of the island, Canea, was invested. 



292 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

After two months' siege it surrendered. In 1648 began 
the first siege of Candia, but this stronghold proved as hard 
to capture as Rhodes. During the course of twenty-one 
years it was the objective of repeated attacks on the part 
of the Turks, and only fell into their hands in 1669. 

As has been seen, the Ottoman Empire began to decay 
from the top. The Sultan finally became the mere figure- 
head of palace intrigues, and the effect of the rottenness 
in the supreme head of a centralized military despotism 
was widespread. Taxation became extravagantly burden- 
some; the royal domains were alienated, the coinage was 
debased, offices were sold to the highest bidder, and this 
general venality caused the disappearance of the military 
fiefs from which the armies of the empire had been re- 
cruited. 

The Janitschars lost their characteristic qualities as war- 
riors when the custom of recruiting them from the Chris- 
tian population was abandoned. They finally degenerated 
into a mere rabble of turbulent blackguards, composed of 
the worst elements of all nationalities. Christian and Mos- 
lem, who disappeared from the ranks during a war, or fled 
from the battlefield and Hved normally by blackmail or by 
illicit trading. The abandonment of this living tithe was 
due probably to the jealousy of the Moslem families, who 
objected to the monopolizing by men of Christian birth of 
the lucrative privileges attached to an elite corps. The last 
time the tithe was collected was in 1676, when 3000 
youths were brought in as recruits. With the abolition of 
the Janitschars dates the rise of the bands of brigands 
among both the Slavic and Hellenic populations. The 
able-bodied members of the conquered races found in this 
sphere of activity a chance for developing their capacities 
in guerrilla warfare; with the training and traditions so 
acquired they were able in later years to act as the leaders 
in the national movements which, during the course of the 
nineteenth century, ended in the dismemberment of the 
Ottoman provinces in Europe. 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 



THE SPANIARD AND THE NEW WORLD 

In the century which followed the discovery of America, 
not only was the lead in initiative taken by Spain never lost, 
but she practically had no competitors in the conquest and 
colonization of the New World. If the lines of medieval 
enterprise had been followed in the opening up of new 
territories for economic development, it should have fallen 
either to Venice or to Genoa to undertake the work of ex- 
ploration and exploitation of these unknown regions. But 
times had changed, and the Italian republics had changed 
with them. Under the stress of the Turkish conquests, 
which had led to the organization of a great military and 
naval power in the East, Venice could follow nothing but a 
policy of self-protection that admitted neither of expan- 
sion nor of adventure. Internal changes in the Italian pen- 
insula, indicated by the overlordship of Milan, had reduced 
the power of Genoa, which had already been weakened 
by her long contest with Venice for the naval mastery of 
the Mediterranean. 

The rise of Spain was phenomenal; nothing exactly 
resembling it had been seen before, except in the case of 
those great tribal or national invasions that so often altered 
the face of Europe. For centuries, like Italy before the 
advent of Italian unity, Spain was only a geographical 
expression. Only fourteen years before Columbus' first 
voyage, the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella 
of Castile had consoHdated the royal power on the Iberian 
peninsula and made these two Spanish monarchs lords of 
the whole land south of the Pyrenees, except in the king- 
doms of Granada in the south, of Portugal in the west, and 

293 



294 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

of Navarre in the north. A steady policy of aggression 
and conquest soon brought about the disappearance of the 
small kingdom of Granada. Between i486 and 1489 Loja, 
Malaga, and Baza had been taken; Granada alone held out 
a few years more. Ferdinand, a most astute monarch of 
the type of Louis XI of France and Henry VII of Eng- 
land, had already crushed the Portuguese faction in Castile, 
who had favored the alliance of their queen with the King 
of Portugal. His ideals were for an absolute monarchy, 
which, by the elimination of feudal traditions and by the 
accumulation of wealth, might become the predominant 
power in western Europe. 

There was no reason for Spain to become a colonizing 
power in the modern sense, since the peninsula was a 
sparsely populated country, large tracts of land having been 
opened up for occupation by the Christian conquests of 
Moorish territory. In preceding centuries, when the Chris- 
tian princes began to win back, piece by piece, the lands 
belonging to the Moslems, a conciliatory policy had been 
adopted towards the conquered race; the Moors had kept 
their personal liberties and had been encouraged to group 
themselves in autonomous communities in the suburbs of 
Christian cities. Even when Granada was taken, favorable 
terms were given to its inhabitants, although in the end the 
promises were broken. They were conceded Hberty of per- 
son, trade, education, and worship, the protection of Moham- 
medan law, administered by Mohammedan judges, and 
the benefit of mixed tribunals. But here and elsewhere 
Ferdinand's methods were a consistent application of the 
principles of an autocrat, and, when the New World fell as 
a prize to the Spanish conquerors, the usages of expansion 
by conquest at home in the Iberian peninsula were merci- 
lessly applied. When Malaga was taken, the captive in- 
habitants were sold as slaves ; one-third of the proceeds of 
the sale was taken for the redemption of Christian captives 
in Africa ; another was given to those who had served in the 
army of occupation either as mercenaries or as officials, 
and the remaining portion was paid into the royal treasury. 
As to the land, it was laid out for a colony. The large tracts 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 295 

opened to colonization were offered on easy conditions to 
the Christian inhabitants of Spain. 

It was not land hunger, therefore, which prompted the 
Spanish monarchs to accept Columbus' scheme of a west- 
ward route to the rich empires of the Orient. Profit-bring- 
ing trade by which stores of specie could be accumulated 
attracted the founders of Spanish absolutism. The project 
itself was not viewed with skepticism; its scientific basis 
was cogent; there were besides widely circulated stories 
of land existing in the West. But the one practical diffi- 
culty in the way of fitting out the proposed expedition was 
the war with the Moors of Granada, by which the Spanish 
treasury had been exhausted. After the city fell in Jan- 
uary, 1492, several months were spent in haggling over 
terms. Columbus had made up his mind that if the voy- 
age were sucessful he should be adequately rewarded for 
his trouble. Apart from conditions as to offices and the 
administration of the newly acquired possessions, it was 
agreed that he was to receive one clear tenth of all mer- 
chandise, whether gold, silver, pearls, spices, or whatso- 
ever else was gained or gotten for the crown in his new 
jurisdiction. Moreover, there was a further clause inserted 
that in case Columbus should choose to contribute to the 
equipment of vessels employed in the new trade to the 
extent of one-eighth, he was to be at liberty to do so, thereby 
entitling himself to one-eighth part of the profits. 

The prospects of a great trading adventure seemed alto- 
gether alluring. It must be remembered that the discoverer 
carried with him a letter from the Catholic monarchs to the 
Grand Khan of Tartary; and that it was this opening up 
of a direct trade route, with enormous possibilities for 
commercial profit, that inspired the Spanish conquest of 
America. Even after the configuration of the new conti- 
nent had been made out by later voyagers, the fascination 
of establishing a connection with the Orient remained a 
strong inducement. Then as it faded away as an immedi- 
ate possibility, the opportunity of securing large hoards of 
the precious metals stimulated discovery and exploration. 
The lust of territorial conquest remained associated with 



296 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

the lust of gold. The Spanish adventurer had no ideal 
aims; he was not attracted by the American continent be- 
cause it offered a new home or because it presented a 
chance for trying political experiments. There was the 
same single-mindedness in the conquistador ideal as is seen 
to-day in the trust magnate who is searching for oil wells. 
The sordid aims called forth by the success of Columbus' 
expedition were not developed by the contest with the 
natives occupying the lands whose possession was 
coveted. 

When the Spanish conquerors arrived in those unknown 
islands of the western sea the American continent was 
held by a number of the Turanian races which had one time 
peopled most of the Old World. Only a few relics of their 
predominance are seen in the Europe of to-day in the 
Basques, the Finns, and the Esthonians. Long before his- 
torical times the process of uniting Asia and Europe with 
America had begun. Probably thousands of years before 
the rise of Caucasian civilization along the Nile and the 
Euphrates, Turanian hordes found their way across the 
Behring Straits. Little capacity for attaining the arts of 
civilized life was shown by the American Turanians; there 
were, it is true, differences in social organization, but the 
general level of civilization was not far above the savage 
type, even in the Valley of Mexico or in Quito and Cuzco in 
South America. 

Those who took part in the overthrow of the Aztec and 
Inca governments magnified their own achievements by de- 
scribing themselves as the conquerors of great civilized em- 
pires. Such fictions were natural in men who desired to 
exalt the difficulties of a suddenly achieved fame, and the 
exaggeration was the more easily believed because of their 
seizure of large stores of those precious metals by which, 
in the Old World, progress in civilization was measured. 
From the point of view both of the home government and 
of those who took part in the first cycle of voyages, there 
was not much encouragement of profit to be derived in the 
islands and shores of the mainland touched by Columbus 
and by those who worked under his leadership and inspira- 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 297 

tion from 1492-15 17 — that is, during the first twenty-five 
years of Spanish conquest. 

In the first voyage of Columbus much of the coast of 
Hayti was explored because of the stories told as to the 
existence of gold on the island. In the second expedition, 
made the following year, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Puerto 
Rico, Jamaica were discovered. The foundation of the first 
Spanish city on the island of Hayti was laid; then the ex- 
plorer passed along the north coast of Cuba, which espe- 
cially interested him because he took it to be the mainland of 
Cathay and Cipango not far from Malacca. In 1498, after 
discovering Trinidad, he reached the South American con- 
tinent at the mouth of the Orinoco River, which was identi- 
fied by him as one of the streams of the terrestrial paradise. 
Then followed complaints of administrative abuses which 
led to Columbus' return to the Spanish peninsula as a 
prisoner. 

There was a fourth voyage in 1502 which extended as 
far as Honduras. After showing a piece of gold to the 
natives Columbus inquired of them by signs where the 
metal could be found. They pointed to the east, and after 
some further communications Columbus was convinced that 
the land of Cathay lay in that direction. He spent many 
weeks afterward in tacking along the shore against adverse 
winds and currents. Finally he landed at a place called 
by the natives Veragua, where the signs of civilized life, 
indicated by the village communities and the numbers of 
temples and sepulchers constructed of stone and lime, and 
suitably decorated, and, above all, the abundance of gold 
demonstrated to him that he had reached the golden Cher- 
sonese of the East. This was the land, he was sure, that 
had furnished King Solomon with his famous treasures. He 
set out from Veragua certain of discovering after a few 
leagues' journey the straits of Malacca. After that, to reach 
the mouth of the Ganges would only be a matter of a 
few days. When he found the peninsula larger than he 
expected, he turned back to Veragua, meaning to found 
a permanent settlement there; but the warHke natives 
forced him to take refuge on his ships. Disheartened, the 



298 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

explorer withdrew to Hayti, from whence he returned to 
Spain, where he died on May 20, 1506. 

There was a curious vein of mysticism in Columbus' char- 
acter, which comes out in a quotation made by him in his 
later years, from the fam.ous medieval Apocalyptic, Joachim 
of Calabria. '' The Rabbi Joachim," he writes, '' says 
that out of Spain shall come he who shall rebuild the House 
of Mount Zion." His discovery, the explorer explained, 
would bring about the recovery of the Holy City and of the 
Sepulcher of Christ by means of the gold which would be 
found in the Indies. When he returned the first time from 
Hayti to Spain, he wrote that those whom he left be- 
hind would easily collect a ton of gold while he was absent, 
and that, therefore, in less than three years the capture of 
the Holy Sepulcher and the conquest of Jerusalem could 
be undertaken. Later on, he provided that the accumulated 
income of his property, which was to be invested in shares 
of the Bank of St. George in Genoa paying six per cent., 
should to the extent of one-half go to aid the expenses of 
recovering the holy places in Palestine. 

The constant quest for gold that stimulated the voyages 
of the great explorer had, therefore, its basis in this extraor- 
dinary and fanatical revival of the spirit which had once 
inspired the Crusades. It was almost a mania with Colum- 
bus, whose letters contain eulogies on gold : '' Who hath this, 
hath all that can be desired in the world; gold can even 
bring souls into Paradise." Though the metal could not 
be found in great quantities, he discovered nevertheless a 
way by which the New World might be made to yield the 
gold which was wanted. It was Columbus who started in 
America the traffic in human beings. The day after he 
arrived in the West Indies, he talked of the prospect of 
using the Indians for slave traffic, and he promised to send 
to Europe a whole shipful of these idolaters. He kept his 
promise also, for in 1495 he sent five hundred Indian cap- 
tives to be sold at Seville. The next year three hundred 
more arrived at Cadiz. It has been not unnaturally sup- 
posed that the harsh treatment received later on by the ex- 
plorer at the hands of the governor of Hayti had a close 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 299 

connection with Columbus' persistent policy of recruiting 
slave gangs from the natives of the islands he had visited. 
It is certain that Isabella was so outraged by the constant 
stream of West Indian slaves which had its source in 
Columbus' discoveries that she frequently directed their 
repatriation. It is significant also that Bobadilla, the man 
who sent Columbus back to Spain in irons, is spoken of 
by Las Casas as an upright and humane person. 

This willingness to allow the inauguration of a trade in 
slaves in lieu of the export from the New World of the 
precious metal which was so persistently sought for may 
be also explained by the strangeness and uncouthness of 
the inhabitants of the West Indian islands. Apart from the 
Mexicans and Peruvians, the greatest extent of the New 
World was inhabited by peoples who had not yet got beyond 
the hunting stages of culture. They used, of course, articu- 
late speech, they had the knowledge of fire, and employed a 
few rude instruments of stone and wood, but they were 
essentially savages, and up to this time man in an actually 
savage stage was not known to Europeans — even to travel- 
ers. Marco Polo, indeed, had told of the existence in the 
East of races who devoured human flesh, but he was not 
believed. It was the voyage of Columbus that revealed the 
practice to be a literal fact and gave it such impressive 
emphasis that the Indian name Carib or Caribbee, in the 
modified form of cannibal, came to be used to designate 
the savage who feeds on human flesh. The smaller islands 
of the Antilles were all occupied by branches of this parent 
stock, the Carib, all of whom were distinguished by sav- 
age ferocity. The name was given them by a rival race, 
the Arawaks, who under various designations lived in the 
four larger islands, Cuba, Jamaica, Hayti, and Puerto Rico. 
Both peoples had come from the opposite coast of South 
America, probably drifting to the islands by the help of the 
equatorial current. On the mainland there was constant 
warfare between the two, with distinct advantages on the 
side of the Carib. 

When Columbus reached the Antilles, the Arawaks in 
Cuba and in Hayti were in process of extermination at the 



300 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

hands of the Caribs. The work of subjugation commenced 
by the savage Carib was taken up by the Spaniard; in a 
few years the Arawaks of the larger islands were abso- 
lutely destroyed. The vigorous race in the smaller islands 
was never dominated by the Spanish conquerors ; even when 
Spanish domination in the islands gave place to English and 
French rule, the Carib kept up the contest for more than 
a century. But the long years of warfare caused their 
numbers to dwindle away. As late as 1773 a military ex- 
pedition was ordered to be sent to the island of St. Vincent 
to exterminate the Carib population, who refused to be 
reduced. But in place of drastic measures it was resolved 
to deport them. They were finally removed to the main- 
land of Honduras, where from this original small group 
the increase has been so remarkable that to-day their settle- 
ments extend from Belize to Cape Gracias a Dios. 

Hayti, the island where the first city of European founda- 
tion in the New World was established, may be taken as 
illustrating the point where the island population had reached 
the most advanced standard of Ufe. It is true that in part 
of the island the Caribs had effected a landing and were 
driving the less warlike Arawaks before them. But Hayti, 
when the Spanish conquest began, was already an agricul- 
tural country. It had no dense forests; there was an ab- 
sence of larger game; the climate was mild and equable, 
and there were broad open tracts of country well adapted 
to cultivation. When the island was discovered, the popu- 
lation was estimated to be above a million; a few years 
later, in 1508, when under the cruel methods of the Span- 
ish conquest the inhabitants must have been very consider- 
ably reduced, there were still 60,000 males left. The island 
was probably therefore more densely populated than any 
part of the mainland. The natural food resources in the 
shape of fish and small game could hardly support such a 
number. The growing of maize was not unknown, but 
the evidence goes to prove that the natives lived largely on 
the product of enormous manioc plantations. The root of 
this plant was reduced to a pulp, the juice was pressed out, 
and after being exposed to heat, the residue took the form of 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 301 

a meal that could be turned into bread cakes. The prepara- 
tion of a crop of manioc was not difficult. The great savan- 
nah lands of the island, which were covered with prairie 
grass, were burnt over; the soil was thrown up with a 
pointed stick, hardened by fire, a few cuttings of the stem 
were planted in, some slight weeding was done, and after 
twelve months, without additional labor, there was ready a 
heavy crop of roots that could be immediately converted into 
bread. According to Las Casas' estimate the labor of twenty 
women working six hours a day for a month was sufficient 
to provide bread enough to last three hundred persons for 
two years. The ease with which the crop was grown is 
shown by the naive offer of a native chieftain to his Span- 
ish masters to substitute for the tribute of gold which his 
people had no way of providing, an enormous field ready 
planted, which was to extend across the island from Isabella 
in the north to Santo Domingo in the south. The bulk of 
the natives including the males did not work at this primi- 
tive method of tillage, nor did they share in the bread- 
making, but apparently their freedom from this kind of 
labor did not encourage other types of industry. The only 
metal worked was gold, though the island contained both 
copper and tin. For cutting they used stone implements, 
and for fishing bone hooks. Owing to the mild cHmate 
little clothing was necessary. The cotton plant was not 
artificially cultivated, both cloths and hammocks being made 
out of the wild cotton. Little attention was paid to house- 
building, though there were some large joint family houses. 
There was no stone architecture, and even fortification in 
its simplest form was not known. 

For the purposes of warfare the island was divided into 
five districts, each of which contributed several thousand 
warriors under an independent chief, whose office was de- 
volved upon him by hereditary descent. The warlike equip- 
ment was inadequate, not equal to that used by the aggres- 
sive Caribs, who had the training which comes from the 
hunting of large game. The Arawaks were therefore com- 
pletely at the mercy of their savage assailants, unless they 
fought the Caribs with overwhelming numbers on their 



302 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

side. When the Spaniards began the conquest of the island 
the mild natives had, therefore, no chance of withstanding 
even small numbers of Europeans. 

As a further test of the stage of culture reached by these, 
the most advanced of the islanders, we may take their 
religion, which proves their affinity to the lowest peoples 
known. They practised a simple form of fetichism com- 
bined with ancestor worship. There was a class of wizards, 
both men and women, who were supposed to control the 
spirit world. The multitude of spirits were embodied in 
the form of idols, sometimes in human shape, made of 
various materials. There were also idols consisting of the 
wooden figures of dead chiefs set up over their places of 
burial. The most famous of this type of idol were the 
images of the two first ancestors of mankind that were kept 
in the cave from which they had emerged after the deluge. 
As worship to these divinities, rude hymns were recited and 
manioc bread was used as a sacrificial offering and after- 
wards distributed among the worshippers. 

The backward condition of the islanders did not dis- 
courage the projects of colonization which were inaugurated 
immediately on Columbus' return from his first voyage. 
In 1493 the new flotilla showed the expansion of the hopes 
based on the discoverer's success of the year before; there 
were now seventeen ships carrying 1200 men: miners, ar- 
tisans, farmers, noblemen, all bent on the work of coloniza- 
tion. Twelve priests were included in the party. The 
exploration of the interior of the island was taken in hand 
by one of Columbus' lieutenants, whose object was to dis- 
cover gold and to commence the systematic working of the 
mines. 

It was nearly a year before the Admiral returned to Hayti. 
In the meantime affairs in the nascent colony were in any- 
thing but a happy condition. The colonists, dissatisfied 
probably because fortunes were not coming quickly enough, 
were sending to the home government petitions and com- 
plaints condemning Columbus' administration. A royal 
commissioner was soon sent out, whose personal inspection 
of the island resulted in a most unfavorable report being 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 303 

despatched to the Spanish sovereigns. Internal dissensions 
continued, due to quarrels over questions of jurisdiction, 
but these difficulties were less serious than the miseries occa- 
sioned by the oppression of the natives. Though Las Casas 
describes them as " the most humble, patient, loving, peace- 
ful, and docile people, without contentions or tumults; 
neither fractious nor quarrelsome, without hatred or de- 
sire for revenge, more than any other people of the world,'' 
the advent among them of colonists and adventurers bent 
on introducing the advanced economic system of Europe 
changed everything. A tribute was laid upon the whole 
population of the island which required that each Indian 
above fourteen years of age was to pay a little bell filled 
with gold every three months. In all other provinces the 
natives were to pay an ** arroba " of cotton. 

It was soon found that these taxes could not be collected. 
Accordingly, in 1496, a change was made ; instead of gold 
and cotton, labor was substituted. The Indians near the 
plantations were obliged to prepare and work them. Such 
was the origin of the " repartimiento " system which, ap- 
plied to a population unused to regular toil, and adminis- 
tered by harsh and unprincipled masters, transformed the 
larger Antilles into virtual prison houses. The natives who 
resisted were treated as guilty of rebellion and were sent to 
Spain to be sold as slaves. Oftentimes, in order to escape 
this servitude, whole villages and even tribes would take 
refuge in the forests. Regular raids were organized against 
those who tried to evade the tribute; those who were cap- 
tured were sent to Spain. In 1498 the vessels of Columbus' 
fleet took home a consignment of six hundred, one-third of 
whom were given to the masters of the ships to cover the 
freight charges. 

There were scruples on the part of the home govern- 
ment against sanctioning such an arrangement, and on 
more than one occasion, in applying his poHcy of " pacific 
penetration," Columbus acted without waiting for royal sanc- 
tion. After the two years' insurrection of Roldon, the 
chief justice, had been brought to an end by mutual agree- 
ment, Columbus, in order to institute an era of good feeling, 



304 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

made a generous distribution of slaves and lands among 
Roldon's supporters. Each man was to receive a certain 
number of hillocks for the purpose of manioc culture. The 
operation of tillage was placed in the hands of an Indian 
chieftain whose people were obliged to dwell on the land 
they cultivated. Those of the former rebels who chose to 
return home received from one to three slaves apiece. Fif- 
teen took advantage of this last offer ; but they soon found 
themselves confronted by a royal proclamation which di- 
rected that all holders of slaves given them by Columbus 
should return them to Hayti under pain of death. An un- 
fortunate exception was, however, made in the case of In- 
dians who had been taken as rebels. 

Further indications of the attempt of the home govern- 
ment to curb the economic exploitation of the island intro- 
duced by Columbus are seen in the instructions given to Nic- 
olas de Ovando, who succeeded Bobadilla as royal governor 
in April, 1502. He was directed to convert the Indians, not 
to maltreat them, nor to reduce them to slavery ; to require 
them to work the gold mines, but to pay for their work ; to 
refuse to allow Jews or Moors to have access to the island ; 
to accept blacks as slaves. The idle and the dissolute were 
to be returned to Spain, and all mining concessions made 
by the previous governor were to be revoked. Ovando's 
rule was to extend over all of the West Indies, with his 
residence on Hispaniola (Hayti). 

The expedition conveying the new chief was of imposing 
size; there were thirty ships and 2500 persons. On board 
was the famous Las Casas, afterwards the apostle and 
champion of the Indians, who came now to make his for- 
tune in the New World like so many other adventurers. 
The attraction of the reported mines of gold was irresisti- 
ble, and it can be imagined how great was the joy of the 
Spaniards when the first news they heard in the colony was 
the report of the finding of a huge nugget of gold thirty- 
five pounds in weight. This treasure was dug up by an 
Indian girl not far from the settlement of San Domingo. 

Equally reassuring as a foundation for the prosperity 
of the colony was a second piece of news which recounted 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 305 

how, in a part of the island, there had been an uprising of 
the natives which had been successfully punished, and in 
which the victors had reaped the reward of turning the 
captured rebels into slaves. It was well known that the 
feeling in the home country was becoming distinctly un- 
favorable to a colonial polity practised so ruthlessly on the 
natives. The Spanish sovereigns had declared themselves 
to be the protectors of the Indians, and had ordered them 
both to be treated mildly by the civil authorities and to be 
prepared for Christianity by the representatives of the 
Church. They were to be civilized, and taught the Span- 
ish language and habits of industry. No arms should be 
sold to them, nor strong drink ; there was to be cultivation 
of the soil, but it was not to be done under duress. The 
Indian lands could be bought or sold, and the natives were 
to be encouraged to adopt autonomous municipal institu- 
tions under the direction of the priests. They were also to 
have the right of appearing in court to act as witnesses 
or to institute suits. As to the mines, they were permitted 
to work in them, but were not to be forced. Even tribal 
customs were allowed to be continued, where they were not 
contrary to the ethical obligations of a higher type of 
civilization. 

It was an almost idyllic scheme for assuming the white 
man's burden, but it remained a paper reformation ; as the 
testimony of Las Casas shows. For some time before his 
ordination this untiring advocate of the rights of the na- 
tives lived in Hispaniola the life of the ordinary Spanish 
colonist. He acquired slaves ; worked them in the mines, 
and devoted himself with such assiduity to the control of the 
estates previously acquired in the colony by his father that 
he declares they turned in to him a yearly income of 100,000 
castellanes, an enormous sum, considering the purchasing 
power of money at the beginning of the sixteenth century. 

The gold fever caused terrible havoc among the colonists ; 
they were not used to manual labor, they knew nothing of 
the methods of mining, they were poorly supplied with tools 
for the work. Often they rushed to the mines without tak- 
ing with them an adequate supply of food. The tropical 



3o6 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

climate soon brought on a strange disease, probably per- 
nicious malaria. Under its ravages, in a short period, 2500 
of Ovando's men met their deaths not long after they came 
to the colony. The conditions of life were hard, even food 
being scarce in the neighborhood of the mines, and, when 
the royal tax of one-fifth was deducted from the small pro- 
ceeds after the expenses were paid, the colonist's share was 
barely sufficient to cover his living expenses. The few who 
were contented with agricultural pursuits were really better 
off in every way, but in the mania for gold discovery no 
thought was given to the magnificent resources of the soil. 

Las Casas notes that the worst effects of this colonial 
policy began in the year 1504, when Queen Isabella's death 
became known. Ovando's short and easy methods with the 
natives are described with great vividness by Las Casas, 
who took part in the warfare against one of the native chief- 
tains. It was, of course, a conflict in which the weaker 
race could play their part only through ruse and stratagem, 
for, as Las Casas says, " all their wars are Httle more than 
games with little sticks such as children play in our coun- 
tries." Nor were the natives well qualified even for this 
sort of hostilities, since they were *' most humble, most pa- 
tient, most peaceful and calm, without strife or tumult; 
not wrangling nor querulous, as free from hate and desire 
for revenge as any in the world." Even Columbus, in the 
hearing of Las Casas, bore witness to their humane quali- 
ties. He said that he met with such gentle and agreeable 
reception and such help and guidance when the ship in 
which he sailed was lost there, that in his own country and 
from his own father better treatment would not have been 
possible. 

The escape of the natives to the mountains and their ef- 
forts to retaliate started, according to Las Casas, the war 
of extermination. When the governor Ovando arrived in 
the part of the island which was ruled over by a woman 
chieftain, Anacaona, more than 300 chiefs were brought to- 
gether and assured of the pacific intentions of the Euro- 
peans. " He lured the principal ones by fraud into a straw 
house, and, setting fire to it, he burnt them alive; all the 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 307 

others, together with numberless people, were put to the 
sword and lance; and to do honor to the lady Anacaona, 
they hanged her." Death by fire, administered with the 
most exquisitely devised tortures, was the fate of the Indian 
chieftains. " I once saw," he continues, " that they had 
four or five of the chief lords stretched on the gridiron 
to burn them, and I think also there were two or three 
pairs of gridirons where they were burning others." The 
fugitives were hunted down by boar-hounds who were 
taught and trained to tear an Indian to pieces as soon as 
they saw him. 

Although Cuba had been discovered by Columbus, no at- 
tempt was made to occupy the island until 151 1, when his 
son Diego, acting under the powers conferred upon him by 
the home government, selected Velasquez, one of the oldest 
and most respected colonists in Hispaniola, to take charge 
of the enterprise. With only three hundred men he easily 
occupied the island. Like the Indians of Hispaniola they 
were not able to organize any effective resistance. There 
was a repetition of the atrocities by which Hispaniola had 
been pacified. By 1521 the miserable natives were so 
brought under control that they were turned into the un- 
willing and inefficient instruments of the colonial policy 
of their new masters. 

Las Casas was present at the close of this expedition, and 
he speaks of frequent burnings and hangings of the in- 
habitants. Many committed suicide to escape the enforced 
working in the mines. The following item in his indict- 
ment deserves to be reproduced : " There was," he says, 
" an officer of the king in this island to whose share 300 
Indians fell, and by the end of three months he had, 
through labor in the mines, caused the deaths of 270; so 
that he had only 30 left, which was the tenth part. The 
authorities afterwards gave him as many again, and again he 
killed them ; and they continued to give and he to kill. . . . 
In three or four months, I being present, more than 7000 
children died of hunger, their fathers and mothers having 
been taken to the mines." The concentration of the con- 
querors on economic success may be gathered from the 



3o8 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

experience of Las Casas himself, who, though he had done 
all in his power to restrain the commission of cruel deeds, 
wherever he was present, did not hesitate to take advantage, 
priest though he was, of the " repartimiento " system, under 
which he received a valuable piece of land and a number of 
Indians to work it, in recognition of the services he had 
rendered in conciliating the natives. 

Columbus, it must be remembered, received an authoriza- 
tion to deport from Spain criminals under sentence of either 
partial or perpetual banishment. Other delinquents had had 
their sentences remitted provided they agreed to go to the 
Indies. The result among such a motley crowd, released 
from the ordinary pressure of social obligations, was a 
laxity and dissoluteness such as was seen in the nineteenth 
century among frontier communities. Even Columbus 
spoke with no admiration of the colonists. " I know," he 
said, " that numbers of men have gone to the Indies who 
did not deserve water from God or man." 

Despite the fact that the exploration and subjugation of 
the larger Antilles went on with feverish energy, Puerto 
Rico and Jamaica both being taken in 1509, the profits of 
the colonial system were most disappointing. The expedi- 
tions were costly, there was no economy in organization ; at 
home and abroad, there were a host of officials who had to 
receive salaries. The gold mines were poor in quality. The 
native population, by war and disease, had been so much 
diminished that labor became scarce. The smaller islands 
were then drawn upon to keep up the supply of labor in 
Hispaniola, and as the death-rate still continued excessively 
high, the place of the natives was filled by negroes imported 
from the Portuguese colonies in Africa. Some negroes 
were taken to Hispaniola as early as 1505. In 15 17 the 
African slave traffic was authorized by Charles V. 

A more intelligent side of the colonial system was seen in 
the aim of the government to acclimatize in America Euro- 
pean plants, trees, and domestic animals. From the time of 
the second voyage of Columbus there had been detailed 
government orders, according to which each ship that car- 
ried colonists should also be provided with specimens of 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 309 

such seeds as might be useful. Though there were very 
few domesticated animals in America, it was soon found 
that the European varieties would flourish there. Las Casas 
often speaks of the astonishment caused among the natives 
by their first sight of the horse. This animal soon became 
an economic necessity, and in many places herds of wild 
horses in unoccupied regions proved how fast the original 
stock multiplied in the newly discovered countries. Cattle 
also soon became one of the chief articles of internal trade 
between the colonies, and hides were one of the staple 
goods carried on the fleets engaged in West Indian trade. 
Sheep and European poultry also were introduced with 
great success. As to plants, the vine was not encouraged 
because the mother country produced more wine than was 
needed for home consumption, and it was an article that 
could be transported easily to the colonists. The introduc- 
tion of the sugar-cane was a social benefaction, for it set 
the settlers free from the burden of gold mining under 
unfavorable conditions. The sugar industry was developed 
rapidly after the introduction of negro labor. 

With the prevailing ideas of state control of industry, 
colonial autonomy was out of the question. The need of a 
central body with supreme powers was suggested from the 
first by the dissensions caused by the conflict of jurisdic- 
tion between the various officials, whose spheres of action 
were not carefully distinguished. In 1509 the king decided 
to establish at Hispaniola a supreme tribunal which could 
hear appeals from the decisions of the governor. From this 
body grew the committee called the Real Audiencia, or royal 
court of claims, which, after 1521, governed most of the 
West Indies. The function of this body was to look after 
the welfare of the natives, to watch over the executive 
acts of the governor and other functionaries, and to put a 
stop to abuses. An appeal from the committee lay to the 
Council of the Indies in Spain. This body was given final 
jurisdiction in all civil, military, ecclesiastical, and com- 
mercial affairs. With the consent of the king it named the 
viceroys, the presidents of the Audiencia, and the governors, 
and it had full control of the higher ecclesiastical patronage. 



310 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

There was also the Indian Chamber of Commerce, the so- 
called Casa de Contratacion, which was intrusted with t*he 
supervision of the West Indian trade. This body saw to the 
provision of ships, received all goods, and had jurisdiction 
of all commercial questions between the colonies and the 
home country. Through the " Casa " passed all the enor- 
mous mineral wealth that came from the opening up of 
the mines on the continent of America. In 15 15, owing to 
the representations made in Spain by Las Casas of the 
grievances of the native population. Cardinal Ximenes sent 
three friars of the order of St. Jerome with full authority 
to act on behalf of the Indians. Las Casas was appointed 
protector. When the commission was under discussion, he 
asked specifically for unconditional liberty for the natives 
and for the suppression of the serf system in all its forms 
and provisions, in order to enable the European proprietors 
to work their estates profitably. These humanitarian ef- 
forts had little effect in arresting the prevailing methods 
of exploitation. When the pearl coast near Trinidad in the 
northeastern region of South America attracted settlers, 
there was a fresh demand for enforced labor of a new type, 
and the native tribes were raided in order to secure sup- 
plies of pearl divers. Although through the voyages of ex- 
plorers various widely separated points on the mainland 
had been touched, no- place had been effectively occupied 
by settlement. Wherever efforts were made, the native 
population, the Caribs, were found to have such- warlike 
quaHties that no successful foothold could be secured. The 
climate also proved fatal to Europeans. After Balboa made 
his celebrated passage across the Isthmus, an expedition of 
15 ships and 2000 men came to occupy the land, but 600 
of these died in a few months. 

No point yet visited by European adventurers had offered 
examples of native civilization higher than the primitive 
standards attained by the Carib and the Arawak. But in 
the interior, in the thick forests of Central America, were 
scattered about the relics of an ancient culture. In a tri- 
angular space including some of northern Yucatan, Mitla in 
Oaxaca, and Copan in Honduras, there are the remains of 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 311 

sixty communities distinguished by temples, tombs, statues, 
bas reliefs, fragments of buildings, and deserted palaces. 
These are relics of a race who at the discovery of America 
had lost their supremacy for many generations. Accord- 
ing to some reckonings, at least as early as the twelfth 
century these celebrated dead cities were founded. 

The difficulty of historical research in reconstructing the 
records of these aboriginal peoples is due partly to poor 
methods of transmission and also to the fact that so many 
of the original documents were lost at the time of the Span- 
ish conquest and before. Chronological reckonings were 
kept for the purpose of marking the days on which tributes 
and sacrifices were due. To this were added the figures of 
chieftains, the notices of tribal conquests, and such events 
as floods, famines, and eclipses. All of this miscellaneous 
popular lore was embodied in paintings, executed by a 
large class of artists, some of whom were women, on paper 
or fiber rolls or on prepared skins. For this picture-writing 
skins, oblong in shape and of great length, were employed. 
Along with these " pinturas " there was handed down an 
oral method of interpretation. Our knowledge of Mexican 
history has to be derived from the surviving examples of 
these picture rolls and from the traditional explanations 
which were taken down in writing at the time of the entrance 
of the Spaniards into the country. 

The tradition existing in Mexico at this period told how 
the primitive stock inhabiting the land were giants, many 
of whom had perished by flood, fire, and earthquake. Then 
came a body of men who wished to reach the sun, and for 
this purpose they reared a tower. The sun, angered at the 
presumption of the earth-dwellers in aspiring to share with 
the gods the dwellings in the heavens, summoned all of the 
supernatural powers; the building was destroyed; and the 
guilty mortals were scattered over the earth. A mythical 
legislator then appears in Central America who teaches the 
people, the offspring of the giants, the arts of civilized life. 
The basis of this folklore may not unreasonably be ascribed 
to the finding of the bones of large extinct animals and, on 
the site of the Central American ruined cities, of mam- 



312 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

moth statues of human beings. The residuum of truth seems 
to be that the Mexicans of the Conquest were correct in 
their common tradition that their ancestors had come from 
the north, and that the country had been gradually occu- 
pied by successive swarms of invaders who came south 
while they were still dependent on hunting game for their 
food and were finally reduced to settled forms of life by 
the cultivation of maize. The various tribes who took part 
in this migration are called by the Mexican word " Nahuat- 
laca," used to denote those communities who were dependent 
on agriculture and followed a nahua or rule of life dictated 
by a custom administered by hereditary chiefs. At the be- 
ginning of the sixteenth century the Nahuatlaca had 
reached the present limits of Costa Rica. That there were 
aboriginal inhabitants is inferred from the mention of the 
Otomi, the Huaxtecs, the Totonacs, and the Ulmecs, who 
at the time of the Conquest occupied districts not overrun 
by the Nahuatlacan immigration. 

In the first stage of the southward movement the Toltecs, 
take the lead; it is stated that, being expelled from their 
own country, they came from the region of the north by 
both land and sea. Their chief center in their new land was 
ToUan, a pueblo which stands on a tributary of the Mocte- 
zuma River, a stream which falls into the Gulf of Mexico. 
This place seems to have been once a center of trade, for 
the Toltecs had the reputation of being clever craftsmen. In 
addition to knowledge of preparing skins and of manufac- 
turing clothing and articles of domestic use, they must have 
become familiar with various metals and with the employ- 
ment of stone for building. Colored stones and crystals 
were used in their decorative work; from the coasts were 
brought the colored shells with which they covered their 
buildings, and the feathers which were woven into their 
tapestry. Besides this, they had a reputation for the knowl- 
edge of medicinal plants. The ruins of Tollan are exten- 
sive; as described by those who saw some of the still ex- 
tant buildings at the time of the Conquest, they must have 
been most impressive. Sahogun mentions especially the 
Chalchiauhapan (On the blue water) because it was built 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 313 

between the two forks of the river. There were richly deco- 
rated apartments, four being more magnificent than the 
rest. One was called the House of Gold, another the House 
of Green Jade and Turquoise; a third room was covered 
with colored sea-shells arranged as mosaics, the interstices 
being filled with silver ; the last room was decorated in red 
stones, combined with colored shells. There were besides 
four rooms adorned with tapestry made of the plumage of 
different colored birds. As with Selinus, a famous Greek 
city in Sicily, the downfall of ToUan must have been sud- 
den, for there was an unfinished building seen in the ruins 
with remarkable pillars in the form of rattlesnakes, and 
also a mound in process of construction to be used as a 
foundation of a building of unusually large size. This fate 
seems to have overtaken it some centuries before the Span- 
ish conquest, and was probably due to an insurrection 
among the subordinate pueblos. 

The name Toltec came to be used as a synonym for a 
builder in stone or a worker of metals, and it was due to 
the influence of this race that the other branches of the 
Nahuatlaca stock made their progress in the civilizing arts. 
Not only do they stand out among other peoples of the New 
World as prominent in the pursuit of useful arts and in 
artistic achievement, but they deserve a place of honor be- 
cause the deity they worshipped, Suetzalcohuatl, was not 
propiatiated by sacrifices of blood, but by offerings of 
maize, perfumes, and flowers. Probably many of them 
migrated to the regions of Central America, where they 
were able to preserve their own traditions. Here can 
be seen better than in the neighborhood of their an- 
cient capital the specimens of their artistic skill. Some 
of the Toltecs of the dispersion took refuge at Cholula, 
which at the time of the Conquest was the chief seat of 
Toltec arts and religion, and also the center of the slave 
trade. Not far off is the town of Tlaxcallan. 

The dissolution of the Toltec control was followed by a 
long period marked by successive waves of migration. 
Some of these nomadic tribes who described themselves as 
Chichimecs of the sun (Teo Chichimecs) established them- 



314 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

selves in the strong places of the mountains, and took 
possession of Tlaxcallan, making it their center. In time 
this pueblo and its neighbors became of great importance, 
emigrants spreading from it over parts of Yucatan and 
Central America. Even at the time of the Spanish con- 
quest the territory which Tlaxcallan dominated, although 
it was only forty miles in its greatest length and consider- 
ably narrower in breadth, mustered 50,000 warriors. 

The spread of the Nahuatlaca race by their various emi- 
grating swarms brought them over all parts of the Mexican 
plateau, and also to the coast both of the Atlantic and 
Pacific, but the center of their rule lay in the narrow Valley 
of Mexico, probably once the crater of an immense vol- 
cano surrounded by a girdle of mountains. There were 
fifty pueblos in the valley placed on or near the four lakes 
which, by changes in the distribution of land and water, had 
taken the place of the one large body of water that had once 
filled the extinct crater. Before the coming of the Nahuat- 
laca the district was occupied by the Otomis, whose lan- 
guage is still spoken in the neighborhood of Mexico City. 

When the migration took place, Tezcuco, situated on the 
northeastern shore of the lake, became a dominant pueblo, 
and was at the head of a considerable confederacy. On the 
western side of the lake was another group of pueblos 
known as the Tecpanecs, who were rivals of Tezcuco. 
Here there settled about the year 1200 a vagrant tribe of 
the Chichimecs; the new arrivals were named by the Tec- 
panecs crane people or Aztecs, probably from their habit 
of wading in the marshy shores of the lake while engaged in 
fishing. The newcomers proved industrious, and in the 
course of time reclaimed the marshy island, building on 
the land two towns, the villages of Tenochtitlan (place of a 
prickly pear) and Tlatelolco (place of a hill). According 
to Aztec folklore, when they took possession of the island, 
they found on it a prickly pear tree growing on a rock and 
on this rock they saw an eagle devouring a snake. This 
fable is still recalled in the present arms of the republic of 
Mexico. 

The two Aztec pueblos on the lake remained distinct 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 315 

communities until 1473, a fact which suggests their being 
built on separate islands, according to the traditional ac- 
count. By help of the Aztecs, who were skilled in the 
art of war, the Tecpanec confederacy made great advances 
in dominating the valley. There was a little contest with 
Tezcuco when the confederates demanded from its people 
the usual tribute of cotton cloth; Tezcuco was taken and 
handed over to the Aztecs as a reward for their valuable 
services. The growing importance of the island pueblos 
soon, however, aroused the jealousy of the Tecpanecs and 
they resolved to suppress the two island communities by 
transferring the inhabitants to the shores of the lake. In the 
war which followed, though many of the people of the islands 
were at first reluctant to try conclusions with their power- 
ful neighbors, the counsels of their warlike leader, Ischo- 
huatl, prevailed. Azcapozalco, the center of the Tecpanec 
confederacy was captured, and with this conquest, which 
took place in or about the year 1428, Tenochtitlan or Mexico 
became the dominant power in the valley. 

The island pueblos showed a statesmanlike policy in deal- 
ing with their neighbors; Tezcuco was restored to some- 
thing like an autonomous position, and in the group of 
pueblos in the valley, of which the island communities were 
now the head, an equitable distribution of the tribute form- 
erly collected by the Tecpanecs was made. Tezcuco also, 
and Tlacopan, a Tecpanec pueblo, were given a specific 
district over which to preside, and were allowed to pursue 
untrammeled their own line of conquest. To secure the 
dominant power of Mexico, causeways were built in three 
directions to the shore, and with other works constructed 
on two of the lakes, by which the straits between the lakes 
of Tezcuco and Xochimilco were bridged, a strong fortified 
place came into existence which was practically impregnable. 
The warlike and aggressive traditions of Ischohuatl were so 
well maintained throughout the ninety-two years between 
the formation of the confederacy and the advent of the 
Spanish invaders that large tracts of country outside of the 
valley were turned into tributary regions. 

A considerable portion of this work of expansion was 



3i6 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

done by Ischohuatl's successor, his nephew Montezuma the 
First, who ruled over Tenochtitlan for twenty-eight years 
(1436-1464). During his reign the Hmits of Mexican rule 
were extended nearly to those formed by the Spaniards, 
the area of conquest being decided largely by commercial 
reasons. Wherever in the Pacific district there were honey, 
cacao, tangerines, precious stones, copal gums, cinnabar, and 
gold, that region was marked out for absorption. These 
Pacific regions extended 800 miles in length and, because 
of the value of their products, were the most important of 
all the Mexican dominion. On the side of the Gulf of 
Mexico the eastern part of the present state of Vera Cruz 
was rendered tributary; from this district the most prized 
object of exportation was the quetzalli feathers used for 
standards and for warriors' plumes. There was trade from 
Mexico with the Caribs on the Gulf, for Columbus met, in 
1502, a Carib vessel having a cargo of cotton cloaks, tunics, 
skirts, Mexican swords, stone knives, bronze hatchets and 
bells, pans for smelting bronze, and cacao. From the time 
of Montezuma I to the reign of the second of the name, 
the sovereignty was held by three brothers in succession. 
During this period there was a revolt of the sister com- 
munity of Tlatelolco, the suppression of which brought to 
an end the long existing equality in the confederation 
headed by this pueblo. Apart from this the boundaries of 
the tributary area do not seem to have been enlarged. 

Altogether there are found in the roll of tributary pue- 
blos 358 names when Montezuma II was dominant chief 
(1502- 1 520). These were small industrial settlements in all 
of which a particular kind of tribute was prepared; some 
sent cotton cloths, others raw cotton, others timber for fuel 
or building; from others came weapons, deerskins, tobacco. 
The tributes were generally paid annually in prescribed 
quantities. Under this system the great bulk of the popula- 
tion, the Nahuatlacan peasantry, were condemned to a life 
of severest toil of all kinds done in behalf of the warrior 
and priestly classes. The warriors, too, every twenty days, 
had to take the field, partly as a military exercise, partly also 
to provide the human sacrifices that, according to their old 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 317 

elaborate Mexican ritual, had to be offered to the gods. 
The priests took charge of the prisoners, prepared them for 
the sacrifices, divided the flesh of the victims, and arranged 
their skulls in the precincts of the temple, this being the 
method of keeping a regular toll of the offerings. There 
were more commonplace tasks of the priestly order, the 
Teopixqui, that must have filled up the intervals between 
the frequent great sacrificial festivals. In each teopan, or 
temple dedicated to a divinity, the sacred fire was kept ever 
burning; besides, there was the regular offering of in- 
cense, four times a day, at sunrise, noon, sunset, and mid- 
night. To keep up this sequence of devotion and also the 
prescribed immolations, at stated intervals the heavens were 
scrutinized with official vigilance day and night. At mid- 
night all those attached to the teopan were aroused for the 
solemn offering of blood that took place in a penitential 
chamber, each worshiper supplying his share of blood by 
tearing his own body with a strap of aloe thorns. 

In their religious system the Aztecs, like the other mem- 
bers of the Nahua stock, had reached, in a technical sense, 
a highly differentiated standard. They had long left be- 
hind that stage of the lowest savage life where there is no 
recognition even of spirits, those substantial and active 
beings who are made responsible for the changes in the ma- 
terial world that the savage cannot otherwise explain. When 
the spirit is supposed to be composed, not of flesh and blood, 
but of some ethereal matter the era of civilization begins. 
According to savage belief the spirits are made in the 
image of a man, consisting of flesh and blood like man, and 
also requiring, like him, nourishment of food and drink. 
This principle took the widest extension in the Nahuatlacan 
worship; with the development of tribal life and the or- 
ganization of confederacies there went hand in hand the 
regular provision of meat and drink offerings organized on 
a very large scale to secure the benevolence of the divinities. 
Various famiHar forms of fetich worship were employed. 
Probably before the fashioning of idols by the hand of man 
natural objects such as plants, trees, mountains, and ani- 
mals were worshipped; for example, in Mexico there was 



3i8 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

a national annual sacrifice to the mountains. Li the fre- 
quent human sacrifices the victim was slain with a stone 
knife, on a stone slab, while the neck and limbs were kept in 
place by a collar and fetters made of stone. From the 
maize plant developed some of the most important deities 
in the Mexican religion. There was a long midsummer 
festival of eight days devoted to this vegetable, one of the 
prime necessities of life, at which one victim, a slave girl, 
was offered to the spirit dwelling in the maize. At the end 
of the eighteenth century the idol before which the sacrificial 
ceremony was performed was discovered in one of the 
squares in Mexico, recalling the procession in which it was 
carried, bound round with skulls, dead snakes, maize leaves, 
and ears. The toad, as the offspring of water and the 
symbol of the water spirit, was an object of veneration. 
The rabbit, as an animal considered totally devoid of sense, 
was worshipped as a drink god, to whom offerings were 
made that the worshipper might escape the deleterious ef- 
fects of an over indulgence in pulque. Like other people 
in the primitive stage of culture the Mexicans venerated 
rivers and lakes as manifestations of will. 

The common practice of worship of the dead prevailed 
also in Mexico, where its existence is attested by the preser- 
vation of the skull, or by the blocks of stone surmounted 
by enormous human heads which invariably denote the dis- 
tinguished dead, because the gods are always represented 
with all their limbs. There was also a large heavenly 
hierarchy, gods of the atmosphere and stellar powers, some 
being associated with particular mountains, but the most 
important of all was Tezcatlipoca the giver and sustainer 
of life, the symbol of the wind, the bestower of life and 
death. Next to him came the sun god, Huitzilopochtli. He 
being a living person was, as appeared from the natural 
phenomena seen in the succession of the seasons and the 
change from day to night, especially in need of food. His 
vitality frequently shows signs of failing. It is therefore 
especially incumbent upon man to help him in this struggle 
for existence. So necessary was the maintenance of this 
principle of religious faith that the sun always received a 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 319 

share of the human victims offered to the other divinities. 
But all sorts of vegetable and animal life were offered 
to this needy divinity, who seemed to the Mexicans to show 
such constant signs of an impaired vitality. In the pictures 
of the Aztecs the rays of the sun, significantly represented 
as long crimson tongues licking up blood, constantly ap- 
pear. The order of society was so regulated as to keep 
the sun in full vigorous condition; hence the never ending 
slaughter of human victims supplied by incessant warfare 
with neighboring tribes to provide the food supply for the 
sun. If there had been large animals in Mexico, these 
ghastly immolations of human victims might not have stained 
the progress of the Aztec people, for it is an established 
principle that the search for food is closely related to the 
development of religion among primitive races. 

As the people of Nahuatlaca stock advanced economically 
and politically, they applied the results of their experience 
to their primitive tribal religion. Along with the system of 
tributes which maintained the dominant pueblo, there were 
expeditions made for securing the tribute to the sun god, 
called in the language of religious imagery " the plucking 
of flowers." As the service of the god was connected with 
military expeditions, Huitzilopochtli was the Aztec god of 
war, the tutelar divinity of the warrior class. Twice a year 
in Mexico there were special rites in the building called the 
Abode of the Eagles, where the warriors assembled to send 
a messenger to their patron. In the principal court of the 
building there was a colossal symbol of the sun, in the shape 
of a solar wheel sending forth rays of gold. Before it was a 
great stone at the top of forty steps, called the cap of the 
eagles; the middle of the altar was hollowed out to re- 
ceive the victim's blood, and here the poor captive was 
brought dressed in the colors of the sun. He carried a staff, 
a shield, and a bundle of coloring matter, the purpose of 
which seems to have been to enable the sun to decorate his 
face. Just before the immolation the victim was addressed 
in the following words : " Sir, we pray you go to our god, 
the sun, and greet him on our behalf ; tell him that his sons 
and warriors and chiefs, those who remain here, pray for 



320 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

him to remember them and to favor them from that place 
where he is, and to receive this small offering which we 
send him. Give him this staff to help him on his journey 
and this shield for his defense, and all the rest you have in 
this bundle." Those who fell on the field of battle were 
beHeved, as a reward, to be transported into the house of 
the sun, where they became his servants and shared in his 
constant banquets. 

With the eclecticism common to all religions and that 
specially marks its primitive type, an ancient god of the 
Toltecs, Quetzalcohuatl, also a solar deity, was adopted 
as a member of the Aztec divine hierarchy. According to 
tradition, this divine being left his abode in heaven for the 
purpose of showing beneficence to mankind. From him 
man learnt the arts of life, and while he was on earth the age 
of gold prevailed. Unlike the other deities, his character 
was mild and kindly, for he was described as being averse 
to war and sacrifice. Constantly crossed in his purposes by 
wizards, he floated away on a raft. There was a general 
belief that he would return and restore the reign of peace, 
an anticipation which was popular among the tribes who 
felt the burden of the Aztec domination. Each year, with an 
inconsistency not foreign to higher forms of religion, hu- 
man sacrifices were offered under the guise of messengers 
sent to inform the benign Quetzalcohuatl of the need of a 
speedy deliverance. 

As might have been expected, exaggerated estimates are 
given by the early authorities of the number of human beings 
slaughtered in the course of the year; but, in any case, 
it must have been great, for in the small and poor region 
of Tlaxcallan from one pueblo 405 captives were sacri- 
ficed at the chief feast of the local deity. Naturally, in 
the dominant pueblo the proportions of the human victims 
offered to the gods must have far exceeded these limits. 

Closely connected with the Aztec religion was the de- 
velopment of an ingenious, if imperfect method of reckon- 
ing time. It was apparently evolved independently, for in 
the Old World there was nothing like it. The basis of time 
reckoning was the period of twenty days, and each day 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 321 

of this division had a proper sign or name. The periodic 
expeditions against neighboring hostile tribes were con- 
trolled by this division, as were also the holding of markets 
and the arrangement of tributes. There were eighteen of 
these divisions, which regulated the various festivals of the 
religious year. For secular purposes the 360 day year 
was corrected by adding to it a period of five days, a frac- 
tional part of the twenty-day period. On these supplemen- 
tary five days all public ceremonies ceased. The chronologi- 
cal system consisted of a combination of great cycles, each 
of fifty-two years' duration. And each great cycle was 
divided into four smaller cycles of thirteen years. 

The economic and political basis of Aztec life was the 
pueblo, or tribal community, in which frequently each 
clan of the tribe had a localized quarter, each provided 
with the temple of the particular deity recognized by the 
clan as its protector. Through the wars of conquest with 
weaker pueblos there had grown up a rudimentary feudal- 
ism, according to which the distinguished warriors were 
established in the subject pueblos as proprietors of the 
best lands in them. The possession of these lands could 
descend to the sons or might be alienated for the benefit of 
a distinguished chieftain. The food supply of the country 
so controlled was regular, hence there was no need of a 
nomadic life. Wealth was increasing, and the population 
growing. Habits of industry were encouraged, with the 
result that the principle of the division of labor to a cer- 
tain extent existed. Some forms of craftsmanship, too, 
were cultivated, specialized in particular communities; for 
example, Cholula was famous for its potters, while the art 
of the goldsmith was practised at Azcapozalco. Clothing 
was manufactured, the houses and buildings were deco- 
rated internally, and there was an elaborate cuisine. 
Montezuma's meal is described as consisting of thirty 
sorts of stews. He used chafing-dishes to keep them warm, 
and he also drank chocolate and ate fruit as a second 
course. 

There was a system of customary law administered by 
qualified officials, and, ,for controlling the conduct of the 



322 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

people, there existed an extremely elaborate rule of life 
which implied discipline and the recognition of social 
duties and family obligations. The Aztecs had standards of 
value, but no coined money and no standards of measure- 
ment, nor anything like an alphabet or even a syllabary. 
In the " pinturas," however, there were a few purely pho- 
netic symbols. 

The darker side of Aztec rule is seen in the enforced hu- 
man labor exacted to supply the tributes in kind, and in the 
revolting system of organized cannibalism, the outgrowth 
of their elaborate ritual. Some of the neighboring tribes 
successfully resisted both these types of oppression, while 
those who were too weak to do so depended on the mys- 
teriously predicted deliverance from their yoke. In any 
case, the way for a rapid conquest had been well prepared. 



II 

THE CAREER OF CORTEZ 

In 1 5 17 the governor of Cuba, Diego Velasquez, began 
to send some of his subordinates to explore the coast of 
Yucatan. One of them brought back ornaments and ves- 
sels of gold and also information as to the extent and im- 
portance of the great native power in the interior of the 
land. An expedition was then put in charge of Hernando 
Cortez, who for eight years had been an adventurer in the 
New World. The new leader was a native of Medellin in 
Estremadura, where he had been born in 1485. He had re- 
ceived a good education, graduating as bachelor of laws, 
but, after leading an irregular life at home, he had sailed 
for the West Indies, where he had spent eight years, first 
in Hispaniola, then in Cuba. Like other adventurers, he had 
taken part in Indian warfare and had been a planter. 
Powerful interests worked against his appointment; accord- 
ingly, when he left Cuba he was informed that Velasquez 
intended to supersede him in the command. His fleet car- 
ried no sailors, 553 Spanish soldiers, 200 Indians, some 




From a Drawing Taken from Life 



SPANISH CONQUERORS ^ 323 

artillery, and a valuable asset for the conquest, sixteen 
horses. 

On the I2th of March, Cortez' squadron arrived at 
Potonchan, having previously stopped at Cozumel to pick up 
Geronimo de Aguilar, who had taken part in an earlier 
and unsuccessful expedition to the coast of the continent. 
He had become a member of a native pueblo, had mar- 
ried an Indian, and was especially useful because of his 
knowledge of the Indian tongue. At Potonchan the in- 
habitants brought out provisions in boats, but were not dis- 
posed to receive the newcomers in their village; indeed, 
they asked them to accept the food, — bread, fruit, and 
birds, — and take themselves off. Cortez arranged an am- 
bush near the pueblo and, according to the agreement, 
two hundred men under Alvarado and Avila rushed upon 
the settlement when the natives came out a second time 
to bring provisions. In the meantime the Spaniards on 
the ships disembarked under the fire of their artillery. 
There was some sharp fighting, and by the time the pueblo 
was taken most of the inhabitants had fled to the highlands 
nearby. The dead were not counted, but there were many 
wounded and a few captives. Perhaps the actual fighting 
men on the native side in this first engagement were not 
more than four or five thousand. Plenty of food was found 
in the place, but no gold. There was soon another battle, 
in which eight hundred or a thousand Indians were killed. 
Apparently they fell into a panic when they confronted 
cavalry for the first time ; " they thought the man and beast 
were one thing." 

Twenty-two days the expedition now halted, as the pueblo 
was well supplied with provisions, and the enemy was active 
outside. Finally the Indians, who were exposed to the pre- 
vailing bad weather and were without food, sued for peace, 
making a rich present to Cortez. But this was nothing, 
Diaz del Castillo naively says, in comparison with the 
twenty women, who were distributed as booty to the Span- 
ish captains ; one in particular was a prize — the celebrated 
Dona Marina, who spoke the language of the Aztecs, and 
also, because she had been a slave on the coast, knew the Ian- 



324 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

guages of Yucatan and Tabasco. As Aguilar understood 
Tabasco there was made possible, through Marina, direct 
communication with the people of the country. " It was 
a great beginning for our conquest," says the worthy Diaz. 

When Cortez received the natives' peace offering, he was 
careful to inquire where they had acquired the gold and 
jewels. They replied by directing him to the setting sun, and 
mentioned the words Culchua and Mexico. This was a 
sufficient indication, and on the i8th of April, Cortez left 
Potonchan and in three days arrived at San Juan de Ulua. 
Here the emissaries of Montezuma, who from the ac- 
counts he had received through his messengers, was con- 
vinced that the Europeans were none other than the fa- 
mous divine being Quetzalcohuatl and his companions re- 
turning by sea after a visit to the sun, greeted Cortez 
with extraordinary honors. 

There was abundance of food, — chicken, maize, bread, 
and cherries, — drinks of very good cocoa, and, more wel- 
come still, many pieces of gold, some well worked, and a 
large quantity of the feathered drapery and jewels. Cortez 
represented himself as the friendly ambassador of Charles 
V, sent on a special mission of peaceful curiosity. His 
chief interest was concentrated on the gold, however, for 
he particularly inquired of the Aztec Teuhtlilli who spoke 
for Montezuma whether his master had gold. When he an- 
swered in the affirmative, Cortez bluntly said, '* Send me 
some of it." In return for the generous welcome given 
them the Spaniards amused themselves, in the days fol- 
lowing their disembarkation at San Juan, by showing the 
natives their arms and bloodhounds and explaining how 
they meant to use them in their passage through the country. 

The news of the manners of the mysterious strangers 
threw Montezuma into a panic; he was more convinced 
than ever when he heard of the rapacity and cruelty of the 
Spaniards that Cortez was nothing less than Quetzalcohuatl, 
the description given being admirably suited to one of the 
principal divinities of the Aztec theology. To the king's 
mind the sole remedy lay in incantations; he summoned 
therefore the most experienced experts to devise power- 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 325 

ful enchantments to keep the whites from approaching the 
Aztec capital. The charms were inefficacious. At his wits' 
end, the Aztec overlord sent peaceful directions to all his 
dependents. 

After the disembarkation at San Juan de Ulua the adven- 
turers did not pass their time in idle dreams; they found 
abundance of occupation in collecting gold and precious 
stones, giving the natives in return objects of small value. 
Fresh embassies presented themselves to Cortez, not only 
with the usual presents, but giving useful information. 
Among them was a representative of Ixtlilxochitl, the lord 
of Texcoco, who spoke of the tyranny of Montezuma, 
who had killed his brother. He welcomed the Spaniards as 
allies who would help him to avenge the murder. Cortez 
saw in this an opportunity to encourage dissension among 
the natives, by taking advantage of which he could make 
himself master of both factions, and so control the country. 
He desired to found a settlement at the place at which they 
had first touched land. There was a division among his 
followers on this point ; some of them regarding his purpose 
of making himself the captain general of the new colony 
as an act of disloyalty to Velasquez, the governor of Cuba. 
He met the situation by putting the most obstinate of his 
opponents in chains, and finally all the members of the ex- 
pedition were won over by the generous promises he made, 
although there was complaint at his proposal to take for 
himself one-fifth of all the gold that might be gathered from 
the natives. 

The colony Cortez succeeded in estabHshing received the 
name of Vera Cruz, because they had reached the spot on 
Holy Saturday; the words Villa Rica were added to mark 
the fertility of the surrounding country. Visits were 
made to neighboring pueblos with profitable results. At 
Cempoala twenty of the leading men, acompanied by their 
chief, presented themselves; there were the usual valuable 
offerings, and Cortez took care to promise his aid in defend- 
ing and helping his new acquaintances. The chief com- 
plained of the oppression of Montezuma, explaining that his 
people had only lately been conquered and had been de- 



326 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

prived of much treasure. They were obliged to carry out 
his orders, he said, because the Aztec was the lord of great 
cities, lands, vassals, and armies of warriors. Before leaving 
the pueblo, Cortez spoke of his philanthropic mission as the 
representative of the Emperor Charles V, promising that 
after he had returned to his fleet he would see that their 
grievances were remedied. 

The impression made by the benevolent stranger was so 
great that at Cempoala 400 natives were offered by the 
chief of the pueblo as pack-carriers — men of great en- 
durance, the chronicler says, who could carry fifty pounds 
weight five leagues. This was a great relief to the Span- 
iards, who had hitherto been obliged to transport the valu- 
ables they collected from the villages through which they 
passed on their own shoulders in small sacks. Other pueblos 
were treated to the same successful diplomacy. 

The more Cortez heard of the country, the more he was 
convinced that the real objective of the expedition must be 
Montezuma and his capital. The presents received by 
the adventurers and the tales they heard showed that their 
journey must, if their hopes were to be realized, have its 
termination in Mexico. When the second installment of 
presents came from the Aztec capital, the astute com- 
mander remarked to some of his men nearby, in admiration 
of the valuable articles so freely placed in his hands, that 
the Aztec overlord must be great and rich. " If God wills," 
he said, " some day we shall have to go and see him." This 
pious aspiration fell on no unwilling ears, and the opportune 
moment came sooner than even the most sanguine adven- 
turer could have hoped, for Cortez soon succeeded in form- 
ing an alliance with thirty pueblos, contiguous to his own 
settlement, all of them ready to follow him as their leader in 
an expedition which was to free them from the burden- 
some yoke of Aztec despotism. The fighting force now 
available must have been considerable, for we know that 
one pueblo, Quiahuistlan, half a league distant from Vera 
Cruz, offered to supply 5000 men. 

In the meantime, a ship had arrived from Cuba with 
seventy Europeans and nine horses. The expedition had 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 327 

now been three months in Mexico, and the demand to push 
on to Montezuma's city was general. Cortez sent home 
an account of his experiences, in which he drew up a formal 
accusation against the Cuban governor, Velasquez, fortify- 
ing his own claims by a rich present in excess of the value 
of the royal fifth, the statutory portion. '' It is the first we 
have sent," the commander said to his comrades in ex- 
cusing and explaining a generosity that had to be collected 
from their hoards. This act of loyalty was an additional 
stimulus to the adventurers, who saw in their march to 
the interior an easy method of recuperating their losses. 
When the commissioners were about to leave for Spain, 
some of Cortez' men proposed to accompany them. Cortez 
arrested them immediately. Two were put to death ; one, a 
pilot, was deprived of his feet, and the common seamen 
received each two hundred lashes. Father Diaz would 
have been punished, too, had not Cortez respected his habit. 
One of the victims who was executed was Pedro Excudero, 
who had made charges against Cortez in Cuba before the 
expedition sailed. 

To prevent the recurrence of such attempts at deser- 
tion and also to add to his men the crews of the vessels, 
Cortez resolved to destroy the fleet in the harbor, with the 
exception of one small boat which was to carry the com- 
missioners back to Spain. The proposal was arranged not 
to come from the commander himself, because, if he had 
taken the initiative, he might have been obliged to pay off 
the seamen out of his own pocket. So, as Herrera, one of 
the adventurers, says, " if anyone asked him to pay the 
money, he could retort that the advice was ours, and that 
we were all involved in settHng up the accounts." 

Cortez knew that he would meet with no mercy at Velas- 
quez' hands; his only chance, therefore, was to remain in 
Mexico, and that the destruction of the fleet rendered cer- 
tain. The daring plan was carried out secretly at night 
by the master of one of the ships, an intimate friend of the 
commander. The crews had been removed beforehand, and 
the explanation made by Cortez' envoy in Spain, Montejo, 
was that the ships were old and on the point of foundering 



328 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

before they were scuttled. This plausible statement was 
not more convincing than the rest of the envoy's argument, 
and the Royal Senate of the Indies condemned Cortez' con- 
duct as " contrary to righteousness and justice." He had 
acted also contrary to the commands of the governor of 
Cuba, who, in the meantime, as the case was being dis- 
cussed by the home authorities, asked that capital sentence 
be passed. Cortez' view finally prevailed because of the 
fortunate outcome of his march, and in 1522 Velasquez was 
directed not to send to New Spain any people or armed 
forces. 

After scuttling the ships Cortez returned to Cempoala 
to arrange for the expedition. The chieftains of the pueblo 
advised that the route by the way of Tlaxcala should be 
taken because the people of that place were their friends 
and mortal enemies of the Aztecs. A start was made on 
the i6th of August with 400 Spaniards, 15 horses, and 5 
pieces of artillery. In all the chronicles of the expedition 
there is a discreet reserve as to the number of Indian allies. 
It seems to have been a fixed policy to obscure this point. 
But the native contingent must have been very large, for 
at each pueblo where the expedition sojourned one hears 
of the acquisition of native warriors ; at Ixtacamaxtitlan, a 
small place, the chief gave 300 soldiers. 

On reaching Tecoac in Tlaxcala the invaders found that 
the attitude of the people was distinctly hostile; in a pre- 
liminary skirmish thirty warriors preferred to die rather 
than yield. The inhabitants of the pueblo were then cut 
to pieces, as they refused to retire or surrender. This was 
on the last day of August ; the next day there was a hot 
battle, in which the Spaniards seem to have been saved by 
their native allies from destruction. Diaz del Castillo says 
that Cortez thanked them profusely, and adds that the 
Spaniards were panic-stricken by the wild shouts of their 
opponents. There was soon after another battle, where the 
escape of the Spaniards was due to the existence of dis- 
sensions in the Indian camp; the people of the pueblo re- 
fused to stand by one another. Much damage was done 
in the second ranks of their warriors by the fire of the 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 329 

artillery, but fifty of the Spaniards were wounded, and one 
was killed, together with all the horses. Cortez estimated 
his enemies at 149,000, plainly an impossible figure. 

Marauding expeditions were made against the defenseless 
pueblos, whose fighting men were with the Tlaxcalan army. 
Women and children were put to the edge of the sword 
without mercy, and the dwellings were burnt to the ground. 
Fifty emissaries appeared on the 7th of September to ask 
for peace, bringing with them presents of food and plumage 
ornaments. Some were suspected of treachery, and all fifty, 
by Cortez' orders, had their hands cut off. The same day 
the Spanish camp was attacked by 10,000 men, warriors of 
the greatest valor, but even this danger was repelled be- 
cause the plan was known beforehand. The situation of 
the Spaniards was almost desperate, for they had lost a 
hundred and fifty of their number, and the survivors were 
worn out by anxiety and by the constant physical fatigue. 
There was depression in the camp, some proposing return 
to Vera Cruz, where the natives were friendly and where 
help could be had from Cuba. But the commander's spirit 
did not falter. He sent three of his leading captives to 
Tlaxcala to ask for a peaceful passage through their coun- 
try to Mexico. After deliberation the proposal was granted, 
although there was opposition, especially on the part of the 
young chief Xicotencatl, who declared that in another night 
attack he could take the camp and slay all the Spaniards. 
The peace party carried the day, and Cortez entered the 
pueblo on the 23d of September, receiving a royal welcome 
from the inhabitants, who gave him valuable assistance and 
an enduring loyalty. 

After a month's stay Cortez set out again with 5000 of 
these new allies, " men much experienced In warfare,'^ as 
he himself allows. In the neighborhood of Cholula he sent 
the inhabitants word, on receiving their envoys, that they 
must become vassals of the Spanish crown, saying if no 
reply were received within three days, he would attack and 
destroy them. This menace had its eflfect, and great hos- 
pitality was shown to the Spaniards and their allies. The 
streets and roofs were crowded with people as the army en- 



330 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

tered the town, and they were lodged in several large halls. 
The drain on the stores of the natives was so great that on 
the third day they brought only water, rushes, and wood. 
The scantiness of these offerings was to Cortez a demon- 
stration that the townspeople were disaffected and were 
plotting against their guests. He issued an order there- 
fore that all the chief men of the place should assemble in 
the court of the temple of Quetzalcohuatl. Suspecting no 
harm, they obeyed. To strike terror into the natives, Cortez 
planned to murder the principal men and the priests; but 
there were a great many other warriors of the pueblo in 
the inclosure so crowded together they could not move. 
At the entrance were stationed the Spaniards, who, at a 
given signal, rushed on the unarmed mass. Some were 
mowed down; some burnt themselves alive, while others 
cast themselves down from the temple pyramid, the raised 
platform on which the altar was placed. In two hours, 
according to Cortez, 3000 met their death. The massacre 
was continued in the streets for five hours; none were 
spared until the pueblo was deserted. The carnage con- 
tinued the next day, gladly shared in by the Tlaxcalans, 
who had come in to take their part of the pillage. It was 
the commander's intention to demolish the place altogether, 
and the cruel work took two days more. 

A fresh start was made on November ist. The pueblos 
subsequently visited by the expedition were terrorized by 
the massacre at Cholula, and there was no stint of offer- 
ings. Cortez, too, being now in a better temper because 
of the jewels, gold, and precious stones so easily collected, 
did not forget to explain that he had come to save the new 
Vassals of the Spanish Crown from robbery and oppression. 
In each pueblo he won the inhabitants over by his dexterous 
diplomacy and pleasing manners, and they readily became 
his allies. No opposition was encountered during the rest 
of the journey to Mexico. Meanwhile the news of the 
massacre at Cholula had completely unnerved Montezuma; 
'' he humbled himself Hke a reed " ; there was no thought 
of resistance. He sent one of his chief men to Impersonate 
him, as he was afraid to meet Cortez himself. The deceit 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 331 

was soon discovered by the Indian allies, and tBe substitute 
for royalty returned in confusion, leaving rich presents 
behind. Montezuma consulted his magical experts again, 
but the auspices and enchantments were no more favorable 
than before. He now saw only death for all his people 
and for himself; with a fixed fatalism he was convinced 
there was no escape. Tradition told him that the people 
from the land of the rising sun were invincible. 

It was the eighth day of November when the Spaniards 
reached the capital of the Aztecs. The army must have 
been imposing in its size, and perhaps Montezuma's re- 
ligious scruples may have been reinforced by others of a 
different character when he saw the number of his enemies 
and revolted subjects who followed Cortez. Father 
Sahagun, a most reliable authority, who visited Mexico 
in 1529, says that " hardly had the rear guard moved from 
Ixtapalapan when the vanguard was already entering 
Mexico." The welcome was in harmony with the respect 
caused by the size of the expedition and by the superstitious 
fears of the Aztec overlord. A thousand of the principal 
men came out to greet Cortez a half-league from the town. 
A quarter of a league from the palace Montezuma pre- 
sented himself with ceremonious pomp, accompanied by the 
lords of the greater pueblos. He was supported by Ca- 
comer, king of Texcoco, and Cuitlahuatzin, king of Ixta- 
palapan, each holding him by an arm on either side. All 
three were dressed alike, except that Montezuma was shod. 
When Cortez dismounted to embrace him the two accom- 
panying lords forcibly prevented him from touching their 
master. Flowers were offered according to the Aztec cus- 
tom; likewise gold and precious stones. 

After reassuring the Aztec ruler of his amicable inten- 
tions, Cortez went with his suite to lodgings assigned in 
the treasury of one of the temples, a residence selected be- 
cause of their character as divine beings. Montezuma 
spoke to Cortez of the prophecy of the return of Quetzalco- 
huatl, expressed his willingness to become the vassal of 
the great lord of the land of the rising sun; and repelled 
the charges made against him by the people of Tlaxcala and 



332 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

Cempoala. He made, too, a special point of denying the 
stories of having houses with golden walls and of being 
served with gold furnishings and vessels. " The houses," 
he said, ''which you see are stone and chalk and earth; it 
is true that I have some things of gold left me by my an- 
cestors ; all that I have do you take whenever you want it." 
The offer was made effective immediately. Cortez had 
received already many different jewels, much gold and silver 
and feathers, and five or six thousand pieces of cotton 
goods, very rich and in divers manners woven and worked. 
After the interview rich presents of gold were made to the 
commander, as well as to the captains and to each of the 
soldiers. 

The Spaniards kept watchful guard in spite of the sump- 
tuous welcome; the soldiers were restless and desired to 
sack the town. Their attitude did not escape the attention 
of the natives, who began to suspect their motives in remain- 
ing in the city. Food commenced to give out, and the 
horses suffered and also the dogs. In a short time the men 
did not scruple to sack some of the dwellings near Monte- 
zuma's palace ; they showed also little respect for the native 
women, many of whom had shut themselves up in terror at 
threatened maltreatment. 

It was a well-known and settled policy on the part of 
the Spaniards in their conquests in the Antilles to seize 
the native chiefs in order to reduce the members of the 
tribe to submission. This is made clear in a letter from 
several Dominican friars, written home as early as 1516, 
when the practice is noticed. In mentioning it, they ex- 
plain that the Indians are a people who love their lords 
much and are very loyal to them. This strategy was now 
employed with complete success by Cortez. He deter- 
mined to force Montezuma to take up his residence in 
the Spanish quarters by use of fair words, then to threaten 
him immediately with death if he tried to escape from cap- 
tivity. As an excuse for putting this daring program 
into execution, Cortez, who entered the palace accompanied 
by his captains, after the usual friendly welcome, charged 
Montezuma with resp.onsibility for the death of two Span- 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 333 

iards at Nautlan. Cuauhpopoca, the local chief, it seems, 
had caused them to be executed because of their offenses 
and excesses. Some time passed in discussing the charge 
which the Aztec monarch, of course, denied. Cortez' com- 
rades wished to hasten proceedings by killing the Aztec at 
once. Finally Montezuma, completely terrorized, agreed 
to accompany Cortez, and also followed his direction that he 
should tell his people that the step was taken voluntarily 
at the advice of his priests. 

The chief of Nautlan, his son, and fifteen of the princi- 
pal men of the pueblo were summoned to the capital by 
Montezuma. Cortez ordered them to be burnt ; at the same 
time directions were given that all the arms in the city 
should be collected. Fifteen cartloads in all were to be 
burnt with the prisoners. Before the execution they con- 
fessed that they had acted by order of Montezuma. Cortez 
put his prisoner in chains, and this outrage was allowed 
to pass unavenged, for the Aztec lords feared that their 
ruler would be slain. The timorous monarch told his sub- 
jects that what he was enduring in the Spanish quarters 
had divine sanction. Having the king in his possession, 
Cortez made detailed inquiry as to the location of gold and 
silver mines. Much gold was collected, and, whenever there 
was resistance to the orders from the capital, the chiefs 
who refused to give up their possessions were treated as 
rebels to their overlord, and either killed on the spot or im- 
prisoned after being summoned to the capital by orders 
issued through Montezuma. 

Cortez was delighted at the willing compliance of the 
king in playing the role of a puppet in his hands, and he 
wondered because " great lord as he was, that being a pris- 
oner as he was, he was so much obeyed." On his own 
initiative, Montezuma addressed his chieftains, telling them 
that the Spaniards were sent by Quetzalcohuatl, and beg- 
ging them to be obedient to Cortez in every respect, urging 
them to accept their position of vassalage to Spain. This 
was the signal for another great collecting expedition among 
the Aztec feudatories, the chief contributor being Monte- 
zuma himself. The chronicler's powers of description are 



334 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

exhausted in enumerating the wealth that poured into the 
hands of the eager adventurers. There was no scruple in 
taking what was left after the regular tribute of vassalage 
had been paid. 

The commander, however, was very unwilling to proceed 
to the distribution, and when he could resist his soldiers' 
demands no longer, it was found that the greater part of 
the three and a half million dollars' worth of metal had 
been retained by the leader and the captains. He met their 
complaints by telling them that they all would be very pros- 
perous and rich, because they would be the masters of rich 
cities and mines. As a more practical argument, he went 
among the soldiers giving them secretly gold ornaments, and 
making individual promises of reward. 

Meanwhile the rapacity of the adventurers and their open 
display of their wealth did not bring so much odium upon 
them as their forcible efforts to convert the natives. A 
Christian chapel was placed in the chief temple, an action 
which seems to have contributed to destroy the illusion 
among the people that there existed some relation between 
the newcomers and their god Quetzalcohuatl. The undis- 
guised enmity soon came to a head in plans for a revolt that 
included a general massacre of the Europeans. When in- 
formation of the plot was conveyed to Montezuma, who 
seemed worried at the fate of his strange guests and ad- 
vised their leaving the city, Cortez spoke of the destruction 
of his ships and told the king that, when ships were pre- 
pared, the latter must go with them to see their emperor. 
Workmen were sent to Villa Rica to prepare the vessels, 
but it was probably with no serious intent beyond the pur- 
pose of deceiving the prisoners. 

This was the state of affairs after five months' residence 
in Mexico, when news came that Spanish ships were off 
the coast, i6 vessels, large and small, 1400 soldiers, 80 
horses, and 20 pieces of artillery. When the envoys landed, 
they summoned the captain of Vera Cruz to accept as su- 
perior officer Narvaez, who had been sent by Velasquez to 
take possession of the country. The four Spanish envoys 
were hurried off as prisoners under an escort of natives who, 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 335 

by forced marches night and day, reached Mexico in four 
days. Cortez, with characteristic diplomacy, excused the 
rude behavior of his Heutenant. Indeed, adequate repara- 
tion was made, not only by smooth speeches, of which Cor- 
tez was past-master, but by the more telling arguments of 
gold strips and ornaments. They, in turn, told all they 
knew of the expedition of Narvaez, and regained the coast, 
won over by the munificence and the amicable manners of 
the commander. 

No time was lost in heading off Narvaez' expedition from 
entrance into the interior. Cortez took most of his men 
and probably a large force of the native allies sufficient to 
block Narvaez' march to the capital. Only 130 Spaniards 
were left in Mexico under the command of Alvarado. 
While Narvaez was sojourning at Cempoala despoiling the 
neighborhood of the few valuables that remained there 
after Cortez' march, one of the ecclesiastics from Cortez' 
army was sent to visit the rival camp. He showed much 
dexterity in winning over important men-at-arms, espe- 
cially those of the artillery, by a judicious distribution of 
gifts, though outwardly he made loud profession of devo- 
tion to Narvaez. The work of this skilled emissary was 
made the easier because Narvaez kept all the spoil he col- 
lected for himself; the contrast was not left unnoticed by 
the men whom the commander had won. 

When the work of undermining Narvaez' men had been 
completed, the Friar Olmedo found it easy to break off 
negotiations and return to his own camp. There was now 
little difficulty in settling the affairs between the two cap- 
tains without bloodshed; Narvaez' men were ready to 
abandon him. Cortez, as he explains in a letter to Charles 
V, after drawing near to Cempoala with his army, entered 
Narvaez' camp with a few followers by night and, before 
he was observed, took his rival prisoner. There was only 
a little fighting ; two were killed by artillery fire in prevent- 
ing those who wished to rescue Narvaez from entering a 
tower where he had his quarters. This strategy seemed to 
Cortez the best way " to avoid a scandal," but less satis- 
factory to his men was the division of booty found in the 



336 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

camp. Cortez gave it all to Narvaez' men. " They were 
many and we were few," Diaz del Castillo regretfully ex- 
plains ; " Cortez feared that they might kill him and his small 
band of men-at-arms." 

With the advent of this new army of marauders in the 
country there appeared a plague of smallpox, a disease 
hitherto unknown. It made frightful ravages, and its 
effects were compared by the Indians to those of leprosy. 
No mention is made of the epidemic by Cortez ; he was too 
alarmed at the news which came from Mexico to heed the 
sufferings of the native population, who were dying like 
cattle. While he had been so successful on the coast, his 
garrison in the capital had been attacked; their quarters 
had been partly burned and undermined, and Cortez was 
afraid that all the treasure wbuld be lost, his men massacred, 
and the city sacrificed. No word had come from Monte- 
zuma; it seemed that the worst must have happened. 

The difficult situation in which Alvarado was placed was 
due to his own brutality. Before Cortez had left the city, 
he had given permission that the festival of the god Toxcatl 
should be celebrated with the accustomed ceremonies. Al- 
varado added as further conditions that they should bear 
no arms nor offer human sacrifices. This festal occasion 
lent itself readily to a repetition of the butchery of Cholula, 
and some authorities go so far as to think that Cortez had 
given secret commands for the massacre before he set off 
for the coast. While the chiefs, warriors, and other leading 
men, more than looo in number, were solemnly dancing in 
honor of their god in the court of the temple, unarmed and 
covered with gold ornaments and jewels and singing as 
they moved about, half the men of the Spanish garrison 
entered and ranged themselves around the wall, after clos- 
ing the entrances to the courtyard. The Indians, thinking 
they had come in as curious spectators, made no break in 
the ordinary ritual ; suddenly the dancers and the spectators 
were set upon, and the patio of the temple was soon filled 
with dismembered heads, arms, and legs. The court was 
soon nothing but a human shambles. Some tried to escape 
by climbing over the side walls or by rushing up the temple 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 337 

steps; others feigned to be dead; only a few saved them- 
selves. 

The massacre lasted an hour, and, carefully planned as 
it must have been, no hitch occurred during its progress. 
The people outside finally got news of what was happening 
and, picking up their weapons, they made savage attacks 
on the Spaniards, forcing them back to their quarters. 
Alvarado himself was wounded on the head. Finding refuge, 
the Spaniards barricaded themselves as well as they could, 
and the Indians turned to bury their dead, an operation 
which took many days on account of the elaborate cere- 
monial required by the dignity of those who had perished. 
After the funeral ceremonies, the Mexicans returned im- 
petuously to the attack on the Spanish quarters. 

It would have gone hard with Cortez' men if Monte- 
zuma had not interfered in their behalf. Speaking from 
the roof of the building where he was kept a prisoner, he 
gave orders to the Aztec warriors to stop the fight. Cortez 
had heard of the massacre from both sides, as Montezuma 
had sent to him envoys to complain of Alvarado's wanton 
slaughter in the temple. He promised to do justice when 
he arrived, and also spoke, as a proof of his peaceful tem- 
per, of the small force he was bringing back with him. As 
a matter of fact, when he re-entered the city there were over 
looo Europeans and many allies with him; in Tlaxcala 
alone he enlisted the services of 2000 men. No opposition 
was made to this formidable force taking up their old 
quarters. 

It was strange that Cortez, who was usually quick to pun- 
ish any contravention of his orders, took no account of the 
massacre. He omits mentioning it in his letters to Charles 
V, and it is not surprising that Friar Sahagun reports 
that Cortez approved of the crime and told Alvarado he 
had done well. In the disturbed conditions in the city no 
market was held, and the Spaniards were no longer pro- 
vided with food. Montezuma excused the omission be- 
cause of his imprisonment. Threatening words were spoken 
by Cortez, and from this time his prisoner ceased to exert 
any influence to prevent the revolt against the invaders. 



338 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

A messenger sent out to Vera Cruz returned to his 
comrades with the news a half hour later that the whole 
city was up in arms. Even a group of 200 Spaniards could 
make no headway through the streets. The Indians faced 
the artillery in close array, and as fast as they were mowed 
down, the gaps were filled up by others. They fought 
with a desperation which caused wonderment even from 
men in Cortez' army who had served against the Turks. 
Constructions of wood were made to protect the Spaniards 
from the showers of stones that poured down on them from 
the housetops, while they tried to clear the streets covered 
with barricades. But they could make no progress, and 
finally they withdrew to their quarters, pursued by the Az- 
tecs, who entered the palace in the face of the desperate 
resistance of the Europeans. They threatened to leave no 
Spaniard alive, yet they begged as suppliants for their 
lord Montezuma to be given back to them. 

Though there are conflicting details given of the Aztec 
attack on the Spanish quarters, there is not much doubt but 
that Montezuma had been killed on the morning of the 
27th of August, the day the wooden engines were first 
used. The monarch was no longer of any use now that he 
had refused to keep the revolt in check. There are differ- 
ent accounts of the murder, but there seems a fairly general 
agreement that Montezuma was stabbed to death. 

As there was no longer any hope of defending their quar- 
ters successfully, Cortez tried to save himself and his men 
by a ruse. The dead body of the Aztec ruler was taken up 
on the roof, covered with a large shield so that the fact that 
it was a corpse could not be seen clearly. Then one of the 
feudatories, the lord of Tlaclolco, addressed the crowd and 
bade them, as if speaking in the presence of his master, 
to give up the attack on the Spaniards, because, if they 
persisted, he was afraid he would be killed. Little im- 
pression was made; injurious words were spoken against 
the vacillating and effeminate ruler, supposedly still alive 
before them. There was a volley of arrows, and some say 
the body was struck by a stone. This is the basis of a 
story circulated purposely by Cortez and others that the 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 339 

monarch had died from the wounds received on the roof, 
where he had gone voluntarily to speak to his people. It 
was a dangerous thing for Cortez to confess to the murder, 
for Montezuma, be it remembered, had accepted the posi- 
tion of a vassal of the Spanish crown. When the Aztecs 
showed no sign of taking a peaceful attitude, Cortez him- 
self tried the plan of addressing them from the roof, but 
his diplomacy was of no avail. The only conditions offered 
were withdrawal from Aztec territory ; as long as he stayed 
in the city, the Aztecs said, they would keep up the fight. 

Further essays at street combats showed this to be no idle 
threat; forty-six Spaniards were killed and persistent at- 
tempts were made to pull down the walls of their quarters, 
while missiles of all kinds were directed on the defenders 
day and night. In order to bring some relief to this perilous 
position, Cortez sent one of the prisoners to announce the 
death of Montezuma, and offered to give up the body, 
knowing that the burial ceremonies would keep his enemies 
occupied for several days. But the animosity of the peo- 
ple was not to be diverted from their prey. Cortez was 
afraid that the one causeway, that to Tlacopan, would be 
destroyed and the sole means of escape cut off. His men 
were discouraged; indeed, those who had belonged to 
Narvaez' expedition were in a state of mutiny. 

One of the Aztec priests and other leading men previ- 
ously held as prisoners were sent to ask permission for the 
Spaniards to leave on condition that all the gold should be 
given up. Timbers were prepared to place across the 
ditches near the causeway, and a plan of escape was mapped 
out for the Europeans and their allies. The treasure was 
carefully guarded by the allies, but before the night ap- 
pointed for the retreat all the Aztec prisoners were put to 
death. The soldiers also found a large quantity of gold 
which they divided among themselves. The exit from the 
city began just before midnight ; there was a severe thunder- 
storm which kept the Europeans from being observed until 
they got past the first ditch; here they were seen by a 
native woman who was drawing water there. She gave the 
alarm, and before the second ditch was reached the Mexi- 



340 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

can warriors had gathered to annihilate their enemies. 
There was immediately a panic, and those who were carry- 
ing the gold were forced into the ditch. Diaz remarks 
laconically, " The gold killed them and they died rich." 

The only Europeans saved were those who carried small 
amounts of gold. On the mass of Indian allies drown- 
ing in the ditch the Spaniards threw their loads; using 
this living embankment a few of them made their way to 
safety. Everyone looked out for himself, and when Cortez 
was reproached for deserting his men, he replied that it was 
a miracle that anyone had crossed the causeway alive. It 
was some time before Alvarado, with the miserable sur- 
viving rear-guard of seven soldiers, all in a sad plight, 
reached the main body of the army at Tlacopan. (August, 
1520.) 

As long as they were in Aztec territory, there was little 
chance of escaping annihilation, for the disconsolate army 
after their night journey were set upon by the warriors of 
the neighboring pueblos. Their Tlaxcalan allies guided them 
along devious trails until they reached Totoltepec, where 
the fugitives found some temporary security in a temple, 
which they were glad to use as a fortress. Fortunately 
they were not actually pursued by the main body of the 
Aztec fighting men, who remained behind to collect the gold 
and jewels cast aside by the Spaniards, and to spoil the 
dead. Besides, a number of Spaniards had either by choice 
or by necessity remained in the city. According to one 
authority not all of Cortez' soldiers were acquainted with 
the plan for the night journey; others preferred not to 
desert their treasures. It is computed that 270 Europeans 
kept up the fight in the city and then surrendered. During 
the rest of the retreat there were some sharp skirmishes, 
and because of their fatigue and discouragement the army's 
power of resistance was soon exhausted. Thanks to their 
native allies, however, they were brought finally to a place 
of safety in the friendly pueblo of Tlaxcala. The losses 
had been terrible, nearly 1000 men had perished, besides 
4000 of the Tlaxcalans and other natives. At Tlaxcala 
there was much mourning for the great calamity which had 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 341 

robbed the place of its best warriors, but there was no hesi- 
tation in offering Cortez their continued support in resum- 
ing the war against the Aztecs. 

Cortez was careful to give instructions to his men to 
treat the inhabitants with consideration and not to rob them 
of their property. These orders did not cause so much 
dissatisfaction to the survivors as Cortez' high-handed pro- 
cedure in appropriating for himself whatever he could find 
of the gold that had been saved in the panic of the retreat. 
Many of the Spaniards spoke of returning to the coast to 
sail back to Cuba. Cortez' iron will now stood him in good 
stead; he quieted his own men, and arranged to start im- 
mediately a campaign against Mexico by the help of the 
Tlaxcalans, promising as the price of their aid a part of all 
the conquests he made and various privileges and exemp- 
tions from tribute. 

This offer proved an attractive one not only to the Tlax- 
calans but to other natives who saw a further chance of 
securing their freedom from their Mexican overlords. Over 
100,000 men were collected, either by promises or by 
methods of terrorism; any pueblo that resisted was sacked 
and the inhabitants massacred. Tepeacac, the center of re- 
sistance, was taken; its men were put to death, and the 
women and children set apart as slaves. As time went on, 
various individual adventurers appeared off the coast, and 
by degrees the losses in Europeans, in artillery, and in 
horses were made up. This good fortune caused so much 
satisfaction to the veterans of Cortez' army and their com- 
mander that he resolved to undertake the seemingly hope- 
less task of besieging Mexico itself. Additional re-enforce- 
ments and the necessary war supplies were brought from 
Hispaniola, and in order to attack the Aztec capital in its 
most vulnerable point brigantines were prepared on the 
lake, since it was realized that it was impossible to force 
now an entrance over the causeways. 

By the end of December all was ready. The Europeans 
numbered not quite 700 men, while the native contingent 
is placed by some at 150,000. From Tlaxcala, 10,000 were 
asked for, but many more volunteered. As the army pro- 



342 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

ceeded, they found no great difficulty in occupying the 
places on their route. Some, like Texcoco, had been par- 
tially deserted by the inhabitants, who had the forethought to 
remove their goods. In disgust the Spaniards burnt the 
town and its palace where all the ancient records in picture 
scrolls of the Aztec kingdom were preserved. The ravages 
of the smallpox weakened the Aztec resistance, and among 
those who died was the implacable enemy of the Spaniards, 
Cuitlahuac, the brother of Montezuma, who had been 
chosen as his successor. His death at the end of Novem- 
ber was a loss hard to repair. Even Diaz speaks of him as 
" a valiant man and very prudent." 

As their next chieftain they selected Cuauhtemoc, a 
cousin of Montezuma, a young man who, during the 
period of the Spanish occupation of Mexico, had distin- 
guished himself by his active opposition to it. He had taken 
a leading role in the revolt that had brought about the 
evacuation of the capital, and he now set forward upon 
the work of defense with great intelligence. Orders were 
sent to the dependent pueblos to unite in repelling the Euro- 
pean invasion, and the tribute was remitted. Care was 
taken to collect treasures and arms, and Mexico itself was 
placed in a state of defense by the construction of intrench- 
ments and ditches. Cuauhtemoc's plan of campaign con- 
sisted in concentrating all the available forces in the capital, 
yet offensive tactics were skilfully applied. His hand was 
seen when the Spaniards occupied Iztapalapa; here the 
inhabitants deserted the pueblo, and while their enemies 
were peacefully enjoying the spoil and resting in their 
quarters, the sluices were opened, and had not the natives 
of Texcoco warned Cortez in time all would have been 
drowned. 

Desultory warfare continued for a time on the shores of 
the lake, Cortez' policy being to exact vengeance for the 
hostility of the lake pueblos during the retreat. Many were 
razed to the ground and burnt. But strenuous operations 
did not begin until the brigantines were finished. For their 
construction Cortez was indebted to the skill and industry 
of the people of Tlaxcala, who at their own expense cut the 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 343 

woodj and transported it over mountainous defiles by bad 
roads to their own pueblo, where it was cut into shape for 
the vessels. Thence the pieces were carried eighteen 
leagues overland to Texcoco on the lake, where, fastened 
together, they were transformed into ships ready for navi- 
gation. 

Futile attempts were made by the Aztecs to set fire to 
this navy, for they recognized the danger of an attack from 
the water, but there was no thought of surrender. Un- 
tiringly, night and day, they prepared for the siege, making 
new weapons to meet the attacks of cavalry, and construct- 
ing barricades in the streets. The Spaniards also had to do 
much preliminary work to enable the fleet to get into deep 
iwater; 8000 Indians were constantly employed in digging 
a channel from the shore sufficient to accommodate the 
draught of the brigantines. 

All was ready on the 28th of April, 1521. The brig- 
antines were manned with European troops and artil- 
lerymen; but as usual the mass of the army was made of 
native auxiliaries, probably underestimated by Cortez 
at 80,000 men. Altogether the Spanish nucleus numbered 
about HOC, half of them lately come to join the veterans. 
Efforts were made to arrange terms of peace, but the Aztecs 
refused to listen to Cortez' complaints of bad treatment and 
disloyal conduct on the part of his late hosts. 

At every point of the advance to the city, Cortez encoun- 
tered stubborn enmity. There was fighting both on the lake 
and on the shore, that showed the temper of the people. The 
brigantines were surrounded by a flotilla of canoes as they 
proceeded on their way ; but it was an unequal combat be- 
cause the frail canoes of the Aztecs were exposed to the gun- 
fire of the ships. Under the protection of the brigantines 
a landing was effected on the causeway. Step by step, the 
defenders were forced back towards the town; as long as 
they fought on the causeway they were exposed to the 
raking volleys of the guns on the brigantines. 

It was a long, tedious process to take the many barricades 
of the city, and even when the principal street was reached 
the determined onslaught of the Aztecs forced the Span- 



344 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

iards back to the causeway bridges. No real ground was 
gained in these first skirmishes, although there was a con- 
certed plan between Cortez and his lieutenants that they 
should make for the center of the city at the same time. 
While the siege was being resisted with such desperation, 
the straits of the Aztecs induced the neighboring pueblos 
to send out large contingents of men to break the power 
that had so long kept them in bondage. Cortez notices 
especially the support given him from Texcoco both in men 
and in provisions ; they kept on the lake looo canoes going 
and coming with supplies, and 32,000 warriors. 

In order to starve the city out, the water supply had been 
cut off before the siege began, and it was hoped that by 
guarding the causeways no food could be brought in. Much 
skill was shown by the Aztecs in overcoming these difficul- 
ties ; they sent out many canoes by night, a flotilla of specially 
large canoes filled with warriors who did not hesitate to 
grapple with the brigantines. One they captured, and they 
inflicted heavy losses on the equipment of others. The re- 
sourcefulness of the defenders was worthy of the skilled 
campaigners of Europe ; but the problem of the food supply 
could not be solved by deeds of heroism, and famine was 
more destructive than the weapons of their enemies. They 
faced not only the actual distress from scarcity of sup- 
lies but also the desertion of the city itself by large num- 
bers of warriors who could not be fed within the walls. 

The methods of warfare on both sides were worthy of the 
combatants. Whenever the Spaniards or their allies were 
taken prisoners, they were treated as victims for sacrifice 
and offered up in the various temples of the gods with ordi- 
dinary ceremonial rites. The Spaniards, whenever they 
entered the streets, burnt and destroyed everything within 
reach, temples and houses, The rage of the Aztecs at the 
destruction of all they held dear showed itself in their furi- 
ous attacks on their enemies as they drew back at nightfall 
to their camp outside. 

There was no thought of coming to terms, although the 
losses were heavy and the besieging force under Cortez 
alone was more than 100,000 men, and his flotilla of canoes 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 345 

was 3000. The chief aim of the Spanish ruler was to 
take the market-place, and plans for a general assault were 
arranged, now that the blockade of the city was strictly 
kept. From this center it was hoped all the streets could be 
cleared. The large number of allies who each time the town 
was assaulted swarmed over the roofs of the houses and 
made light of all other obstructions, seemed to promise a 
speedy termination of the struggle. But before, in the gen- 
eral attack the inclosure of the town was reached, the 
Aztecs in canoes and on the various land approaches, which 
had now been partially destroyed, made an unexpected 
sally. There was a call to arms sounded from the apex 
of one of the principal temples, the ritual drum being beaten 
whose tones could be heard at a distance of two or three 
leagues. Instantly, as the Indians came rushing upon them, 
the Spaniards were thrown in a panic, and made a precipi- 
tate retreat. Cortez was himself in danger and would have 
been killed, had not his enemies made strenuous efforts 
to take him alive in order that he might be kept for a sacri- 
ficial offering. None of the other captains fared better; 
Alvarado's men narrowly escaped destruction. 

Many European prisoners were made, and from their 
camp the Spaniards could watch their comrades being of- 
fered up to the sanguinary deities of the Aztec religion. 
They were pierced with stone knives and their palpitating 
hearts were drawn out as they lay recumbent on the stone 
altars that capped the temple pyramids. At the same time 
the men in the camp had to listen to the threats of their 
foes who, close at hand, promised them the same fate as their 
comrades. There was no inclination at this point on the 
part of Cortez and his men to resume the fight ; orders were 
given to restrict operations to the defense of the camp. 
But the temper of the native allies was not affected by the 
defeat. The Tlaxcalans especially took the lead in harass- 
ing their enemies, while the Spaniards kept to their quar- 
ters. They also suggested a plan by which the remaining 
supplies of food and drink might be cut off. 

This gradual process of attrition had its natural effect 
on the powers of resistance of the Aztecs. Cuauhtemoc 



346 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

was forced to cover up the losses in his army by disguising 
the women in the city as warriors. Standing on the flat 
roofs of the houses they were easily taken to be male war- 
riors, and at closer quarters the Spaniards found them to 
be as brave as the men. Cortez, indeed, tried to induce his 
opponents to see how desperate their case was. His offers 
of peace were rejected ; when envoys were sent it was always 
a signal for renewed attacks on the three Spanish camps. 

After consultation with his captains Cuauhtemoc resolved 
to die fighting with his people rather than let them become 
the slaves of the Spaniards. The chief food of the inhabi- 
tants now was the green vegetation growing on the lake 
shallows, and they drank the saline water from the same 
source because fresh water was no longer to be had. 
Numerous must have been the victims of hunger and thirst 
and pestilence in the Aztec quarters, and great were the 
losses in the continued combats with an enemy far stronger, 
whose own losses were being made up by uninterrupted 
accessions of strength, while there was the whole country- 
side open from which supplies kept pouring in. It is sig- 
nificant that the success of the Aztecs in blocking the gen- 
eral assault of their capital made no impression outside. 
So far as we know, no attempts were made to break the 
Spanish investing lines, nor, on the other hand, did the 
failure to take the town in any way stop the movement 
to throw off the Aztec yoke which was plainly the prime 
motive on the part of the natives in helping the Europeans 
to take Mexico. 

The siege had now lasted forty-five days ; it was time, 
therefore, to make a radical change in the primitive methods 
of attack hitherto followed by Cortez, methods that recall 
the Homeric accounts of the siege of Troy. Each day there 
was hot fighting in the streets or on the lake where the 
Aztec canoes gathered about the brigantines. At night- 
fall there was a general return to the camp. The new plan 
was to destroy all the houses in the portion of the streets 
where the daily fighting took place. As the horsemen 
charged, the space was cleared and the work of destruction 
began. On the exposed part by the lake the brigantines 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 347 

and the canoes of the alHes were able to do much effective 
damage. The scale of the operations is indicated in one of 
Cortez' letters, where he speaks of using in this kind of 
fighting 150,000 warriors. Under these conditions, where 
each day ground for the next stage of occupation of the 
town was secured, the great market-place was taken. 

Finally the Aztecs were confined to an eighth part of^ 
their capital ; there was no bread to be had ; nothing but fetid 
water to drink; and a diminishing supply of defensive 
weapons. Cortez himself reports that the Aztecs stood on 
the housetops, covering themselves with their cloaks but 
without weapons. The streets and the houses were filled 
with dead bodies. On the 13th of August the signal for 
the final attack was given. Crowded together, without ar- 
rows or even stones and sticks to defend themselves, the 
Aztecs were mowed down by the Spanish gunfire. It was 
a disappointment to Cortez to have to use such extreme 
measures; largely, it appears from his own words, because 
there would be no spoil to be taken. Most of the houses 
had been destroyed, and the people threw their wealth into 
the lake before they perished. 

The sufferings of the besieged made an impression even 
on the hardened feelings of the Spanish commander. The 
last fights in the city and on the lake took place amid scenes 
of horror; everywhere were dead bodies; on the lake they 
were heaped up around the combatants, and could be seen 
floating about as the canoes kept up the unequal conflict 
with the Spanish brigantines. Diaz reports that all the 
houses were filled with dead Indians; there was nothing 
green to be found; the inhabitants had even eaten the bark 
off the trees. 

The end came when the cannon, at Cortez' signal, began 
to fire on the mass of unarmed Mexicans, too weak to move, 
stretched out one upon the other, dying heroically, still even 
in their extremity, as Cortez says, '' never asking for peace." 
As the artillery seemed slow in carrying on the work of de- 
struction, the brigantines with the European soldiers and the 
allies were brought up and ordered to fall upon the rem- 
nant of the Aztec warriors, who were either slain on the 



348 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

spot or cast into the water from their last place of refuge. 

Cuauhtemoc fled from the city in a large war-canoe, and 
the Spaniards gave chase. When overtaken he first pre- 
pared to sell his life dearly, but seeing his wife and other 
women in the boat, rather than expose them to risk he gave 
himself up and was conducted to Cortez, who spoke in a 
friendly way and praised his valiant defense of his capital, 
promising at the same time that he should be allowed to 
rule his people as he had done before. The capture of the 
Aztec chieftain took place on the 13th of August, 1521, 
the day that Mexico fell into the hands of the Span- 
iards. 

The losses of the Aztecs in the final battle are set down as 
40,000; many chose to die by throwing themselves and 
their wives and children into the lake rather than sur- 
render. At the close of the siege there followed scenes of 
pillage of the usual type, with no pretense at discipline. 
The actual treasure seized was small, and to increase the 
disappointment, no trace could be found of the lost gold and 
silver which had been abandoned during " the mournful 
night " of the previous year. The supposed explanation 
was that it had been carefully hidden. Accordingly, Cuauh- 
temoc and others of high rank with him who, like himself, 
were captives, were tortured by fire. But no revelations 
were made, and the amount of gold distributed to the sol- 
diers was small, only five pesos to a horseman and less to a 
foot-soldier. The native allies were paid off even more 
cheaply ; they departed for home taking with them promises 
of future land grants. 

Cortez' plans for reconstructing the city were put into 
operation immediately after the end of the siege. All the 
temples and great houses that survived during the street 
fights were removed. In order to make the conversion of 
the people to Christianity easier, the records of their past 
were obliterated. In a few years all traces of the complex 
Aztec society, with its divisions into nobles and priests and 
warriors, were lost. But at least the native population in 
Mexico did not meet the fate of those in the isles of the 
Antilles: the stock was a hardier one and the systematic 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 349 

working of the mines did not begin until twenty- five years 
after the conquest, when, owing to the propaganda of Las 
Casas, protective measures were enforced. Cortez intro- 
duced European grains and took care to repair the losses 
in the food supply produced by the devastation of the con- 
quest. 

Incapable of reconciling himself to the humdrum life of 
peaceful rule after his years of adventure, the commander 
could not endure to see his lieutenants penetrating into the 
unknown regions of the south, while he stayed behind re- 
ceiving their reports of immeasurable treasure. In Octo- 
ber, 1524, he set out for Honduras with a few Europeans 
and a large number of Indian allies. Among his com- 
panions were Cuauhtemoc, the dethroned Aztec overlord, 
and many of his nobles and chieftains. The march was 
through difficult country filled with dense woods, mountains, 
and morasses. The expedition suffered from the heat, and 
had to endure lack of water and food as well as perils from 
enteric fever. Cuauhtemoc and the Aztec lord of TIacopan 
were charged with plotting against their new masters and 
were, therefore, put to death. Nothing was acomplished 
in this expedition, and after twenty months Cortez returned 
to Mexico. Soon after he was recalled to Spain to answer 
various charges due to his maladministration and to his un- 
controlled dictatorship. He was treated with great honor 
and named captain-general of New Spain, but care was 
taken that he should no longer be intrusted with the duty 
of civil administration in the new province. He returned 
to Mexico in 1530 and again tried his fortune as a discov- 
erer, this time undertaking, either personally or by lieu- 
tenants, expeditions to the northwest. Two fleets equipped 
by him were destroyed ; a third was led by him into the un- 
promising region about the Gulf of California. In 1540, 
he again left Mexico to secure an indemnity from Charles 
V for his unsuccessful ventures. He followed the Emperor 
to the siege of Algiers in 1541, but was not able to secure 
attention to his demands. The rest of his life was passed 
in preparing petitions to a monarch whose treasury was 
being drained by other more immediate claims. He did not 



350 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

return to Mexico, and died on December 2, 1547, at the age 
of sixty-three years. 



Ill 

THE INCAS 

It is the custom to associate, when the spheres of 
Spanish conquest are in question, the Aztecs of Mexico 
and the Incas of Peru. The parallel is only roughly 
accurate, for, although the Incas had made a great 
record in material advancement by the time they came 
into contact with the Spaniards, the level reached by 
them was considerably lower than that attained by 
their neighbors to the north. Their method of reckoning 
was far more primitive; they used picture painting for 
ornament; there was no commerce, no division of labor, no 
standard of value. On the other hand there was no such 
cannibalism as that found consecrated to the religious 
usages of the Nahuatlaca. 

Among the Incas there was a vast peasant class who had 
been brought into subjection by the conquering race who 
entered Peru from the south. Apparently the first home 
of these invaders was the high land of Bolivia, in a small 
canton, Cuzco, situated on the natural highway that leads 
from the Bolivian highlands to the upper tributaries of the 
Amazon. The origins of Inca history can hardly go back 
further than three hundred years before the Spanish con- 
quest. When the Spaniards came, consistent traditions 
were still preserved of the origin of the dominant tribe that 
told how, when Cuzco was first settled by them, it was al- 
ready occupied by aboriginal inhabitants whose district was 
taken possession of by Manco Ccapac, the founder of the 
Inca rule. From the time of the first occupation eleven 
sovereign chiefs had borne sway over them for a period 
which may be justly estimated as three hundred years. 

There were no chronological records, but there was curi- 
ously unique evidence in the shape of the mummified 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 351 

bodies of the eleven chieftains, who were given the same 
attention as lords and landowners that they enjoyed when 
alive. Their estates, herds of llamas, serfs were still treated 
as belonging to them; food and drink were daily placed 
before them; new clothing was prepared, and they were 
carried out for daily exercise in richly ornamented litters. 

The rise of Inca domination had not been without serious 
opposition; there was a powerful coalition formed against 
them when their aggression became a menace to the neigh- 
boring tribes. The Inca chieftains were killed, and the 
situation was saved only by the appointment of a new leader, 
Huiracocha, who saw that more was to be won by concilia- 
tion than by aggression. This chieftain was one of the four 
to whom the consolidation of the Inca dominions was due. 
Under a later Inca chieftain Pachacutic (1435-1471), "the 
changer of the world," the pueblo of Cuzco dominated the 
whole of central Peru, and a district 300 miles in length to- 
wards the northwest. To the southeast it had a sphere 
of influence over a district of about equal extent, which was 
converted into definite subjection by Pachacutic and his 
allies. 

The next stage of conquest was towards the north, where 
no special obstacles were encountered. The population was 
sparse, and in a low condition. Here an Inca colony was 
founded, which, with its capital at Quito, still survives 
under the form of the republic of Ecuador. From this van- 
tage ground in their northern colony the Incas seem to have 
been brought into direct connection with the sea coast, for, 
owing to the long overland journey between Cuzco and 
their northern possessions, the water route was easier, and 
owing to the penetration of the land by the gulf of Guayaquil 
would easily suggest itself to those who as residents of the 
interior were not familiar before with journeyings by water. 
The advance into the coast valleys met with stout resistance 
on the part of a powerful confederacy which had Chimu as 
its center. The place was of strategical value to the Incas 
because it commanded important roads leading from the 
coast plain to the sierras, and was also accessible to the 
newly acquired northern colony and its hereditary domains. 



352 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

Because of the successive steps by which the power of the 
Incas was so rapidly extended, the name of Pachacutic 
was associated with the whole of the administration of the 
Inca state as a lawgiver, architect, engineer, economist, and 
chief priest. His successor Tupac- Yuparqui followed in his 
father's steps by enlarging the state's borders both on the 
south and north. Resistance was cruelly repressed, as one 
sees from the narrative of his war on the coast valley of 
Huarco, where the Inca's warriors, brought together for 
three years in a permanent camp, wore out the natives by 
constant harryings, until they agreed to capitulate on the 
condition of being incorporated with the Inca nation. 
Tupac had no scruples in violating the compact by a general 
massacre of the vanquished. Even at the conquest im- 
mense heaps of bones were still pointed out, as relics of the 
methods by which Inca rule had been built up. 

In 1493, Tupac died at Cuzco and was succeeded by his 
son Huaina Capac under whom the era of expansion came 
to an end; he occupied himself with temple building, with 
road construction, and with making punitive expeditions on 
the savage tribes who dwelt on the outskirts of his empire. 
Afterwards, in 1525, he fell a victim to an epidemic. There 
was a civil war due to a rebellion in the northern colony 
under Tupac-atahuallpa who assumed the government be- 
cause of the incapacity of Huascar, the new chieftain at 
Cuzco. The revolt was successful; the warriors from the 
northern colony steadily advanced until they forced Huas- 
car to leave Cuzco and finally to surrender himself and his 
family into the hands of the rival chieftain, after which 
he was taken to Lazamara, the fortified station mid- 
way between the northern colony and the original do- 
minion. 

The extent of the territory conquered by the Incas, as 
well as the rapidity with which the conquest was made, gives 
their annals a unique position in the history of tribal life 
at a comparatively low state of culture. As soon as they 
passed beyond the confines of middle Peru, their expan- 
sion as a conquering power met with no setback. The 
peoples who were threatened by their advance did not form 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 353 

a coalition against them, and when new areas were once 
conquered, new peoples were at once added, who sup- 
plied them with additional warriors. The structure of the 
empire was so simple, so loosely knit that it collapsed as 
soon as it was confronted by the serious internal difficulties 
that grew out of the disputed succession. The Spaniards 
came at an opportune moment and received without trouble 
the large landed inheritance of the Inca overlord, whose 
domains covered the territory now occupied by Ecuador, 
Peru, Bolivia, and Chili. 

In estimating the standard of civilization attained by the 
Incas their theology, which is certainly of an advanced type, 
is naturally taken into account. The worship of the sun was 
one of the strongest bonds that kept together their widely 
separated lands. In each pueblo there was an estate of 
the sun god that was worked exactly as if it belonged to a 
chieftain. This economic network of temple estates was 
primarily intended to provide the sun with such constant 
supplies of food that the god's beneficent activity on the 
earth and to man could be sustained. The processes of 
tillage and the craft of weaving were all brought in this 
way in close relation to the religion of the dominant people. 
Portions of the finest woven stuffs, along with the offer- 
ings of the ground, were burned in sacrifice at each pueblo ; 
the rest was carried on the backs of llamas belonging to the 
estates of the sun for the great festivals celebrated annually 
at Cuzco, where these beasts of burden and all they carried 
were sacrificed in honor of the god. An essential part of 
the ritual of sacrifice was the offering of human victims. 
These were not war captives as in Mexico ; they were taken 
from the women serfs, attached to the estates of the sun, 
the weavers of the llama wool, who were called " the 
selected ones." This name was given to them because 
from each family in the pueblo there was collected a regu- 
lar tribute of girls, distinguished by their beauty and 
vigor, who were trained to become members of the com- 
munities dedicated to the sun's service. After an educa- 
tion of eight years most of them were distributed among 
the various temples of the gods, the sun receiving the 



354 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

larger share, while some were given to the Ccapac Inca him- 
self or to his officials. 

These offerings of human victims took place at the pre- 
scribed sacrifices during the religious year, and also at ex- 
traordinary crises — for example, when the Inca chieftain 
was attacked by disease, when the country was endangered 
by wars, or when earthquakes and eclipses occurred. To 
symbolize the sun, images in the figure of a man were carved 
with an attire resembling that of the Inca chieftain, deco- 
rated with a headdress of darts, to resemble the solar rays. 

As in Mexico the warrior class in Peru had a special 
ritual of sun worship not shared by outsiders. In this case 
the idol represented an infant molded of solid gold, with 
golden embroidery, shod with golden sandals, and with a 
headdress copied from that worn by the chiefs. For the 
purpose of popular worship, as these esoteric rites were not 
accessible to the common people, great sun dials covered with 
leaf of gold were set up, where they were exposed to the 
rays of the sun, and on them simple liquid offerings were 
made, that were visibly appropriated by the god through 
the processes of evaporation. 

A great center of pilgrimage was the throne of the 
sun at Titicaca where, in the innermost shrine, there was a 
sacred rock the summit of which glittered with gold leaf. 
In the neighborhood of Cuzco and on the road to the rock 
of pilgrimage there were stations of sacrifice, where burnt- 
offerings of llamas, cocoa, and maize were made in order 
to inaugurate the new sun's progress from his ancient birth- 
place in the south. Sunrise was the time selected for these 
offerings; a white llama, bearing fuel, maize, and cocoa 
leaves, was previously led up to the mountain top, fire was 
kindled, and the victim was slain and consumed in the 
flames. By the time the sun was about to rise above the 
horizon, the burning pile was in full blaze. As the sun rose, 
the Incas chanted the prayer for the protection of their 
god : " O Creator, Sun, and Thunder, be forever young ! 
Multiply the people, let them ever be in peace." 

In the Peruvian religious system much attention was 
given to the service of dead chieftains by a class of special 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 355 

attendants organized like those who served the gods. There 
was, therefore, throughout the whole Inca domains, a large 
class of ecclesiastics well endowed with lands and serfs; 
at Cuzco at the time of the conquest most of the inhabitants 
of the pueblo were assigned to the service of some mummy. 
There was no hope for the living unless they could keep 
the good will of the dead; in all the affairs of life they 
had a part, food was set before the dead body at feasts 
and liquid refreshment was forced between the mummy's 
lips. 

Huascar, the rival of Atahuallpa for the chieftainship of 
the Incas, lost the support of the warrior class because 
he was reported to have said that all the dead ought to be 
buried and their property taken from them. He did not 
wish to rule over mummies, from less sentimental reasons 
than those once expressed on a celebrated occasion by the 
spirit of Achilles. There had undoubtedly originated in Peru 
a movement against the economic monopoly connected with 
the temple worship. An effort had been made to meet this 
difficulty on the part of the Inca chieftains, who apparently, 
in view of the multiplication of festivals and sacrifices, had 
adopted the policy of diminishing the worship of the minor 
divinities and of concentrating the sacrificial offerings as 
far as they could on the Creator, Sun, Thunder, Earth, and 
Moon. 

Under Inca rule the simple tribal administration was re- 
tained throughout the group of districts which were added 
in rapid succession to the seat of the race at Cuzco. Each 
Inca pueblo had its local chief or curaca, to whom were 
assigned a certain number of llamas and those portions of 
the land that were worked for him by the peasantry, who 
did all the agricultural labor. Distributions of the same 
character were made in each pueblo for the use of the head 
chieftain who dwelt at Cuzco, the so-called Ccapac Inca, 
and for the service of the tribal chieftains. The products 
of these reservations were taken to Cuzco and deposited 
there in store-houses from whence the llama hair was given 
to the women of the chief pueblo and woven by them into 
cloth. The food and the cloth so prepared were either kept 



356 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

as stores for military expeditions or used for sacrificial pur- 
poses. 

As the territory of the empire was enlarged, this original 
system was applied to it. In each central district there 
was the same arrangement of buildings secular and re- 
ligious, the Inca-tampu and the Ccoricancha, to which the 
produce of the lands belonging to the overlord and the sun 
was brought at regular intervals. These stations are 
found generally throughout the Inca domains, except in the 
coast-valleys. Between them were minor stations where 
two messengers were kept to carry orders from one stage 
to the other. Where there were natural difficulties to be 
overcome, in the long line of communication between the 
capitals Quito and Cuzco, a distance of 1500 miles in ex- 
tent, causeways were built, and over streams and torrents 
enduring bridges were stretched, made of timber laid in 
strong ropes of twisted grass. There was a second road 
along the coast of the same length, but here, where the 
country was sandy, nothing was to be found save direc- 
tion marks to indicate the correct track to be followed. In 
Cuzco there are still standing massive, finely-executed 
foundation walls which attest the skill of Inca builders. The 
temple of the sun can still be traced in the edifices of the Eu- 
ropean occupation. On an elevation commanding the road 
which led to middle Peru, the coast-valleys, and the northern 
colony there stands an impressive mass of cyclopean 
masonry, the fortress of Sacsahuaman, which represents 
the great terraced fortress begun by the founder of the 
Inca dominion and apparently not yet finished at the time 
of the conquest. 

Though the Incas preserved a systematic administration 
that worked with mechanical accuracy over the area of 
their empire, it was at best a despotism, and their chief- 
tains were nothing better than crude and brutal tyrants. 
The mental capacity of the race seems to have been below 
that of the people of Mexico, and their culture was cer- 
tainly lower, as is seen in the absence of artistic advance on 
their part along with their inabihty to invent picture- 
writing, to work out the divisions of time, or to elaborate 











i 


V- 




k 


i^B^^^^^I 






^ 








^K 


1 









Francisco Pizarro 

(From the original painting in the palace of the V'iceroys at Lima.) 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 357 

a system of numbers, although they were acquainted with 
denary arithmetic, and regularly observed the solstices. 
As warriors, they seem to have been drilled efficiently but 
mechanically ; they were unable to foresee changes or adapt 
themselves to them when they , came. They were van- 
quished by the Europeans more easily than the Aztecs had 
been, and their downfall was brought about by the assist- 
ance rendered the Spaniards by hosts of native allies. 



IV 

PIZARRO 

The discovery of the Pacific Ocean and the foundation 
of the city of Panama on the narrow peninsula, led to the 
undertaking of voyages of exploration farther south, and 
this in turn to the entrance into Inca territory. In one of 
these enterprises progress was made as far as the Gulf of 
Guayaquil. The unanimous report was that the country 
for hundreds of miles was in a state of nature, unoccupied, 
unhealthful, covered with swamps, forests, and lofty moun- 
tains; but the voyagers had also heard that farther on to 
the south there was an empire, Bisu by name, civilized 
and notorious for its great wealth. 

Francis Pizarro had been associated with Balboa up to 
the time of that leader's assassination; afterwards he 
planned to act on his own account, and his planning ended 
in the organization of an expedition to acquire this empire 
of the south. The natural son of a Spanish noble, Pizarro, 
who was born about 1471 at Truxillo, had had no such ad- 
vantages of education as those enjoyed by Cortez; he lacked 
also that conqueror's impetuosity and chivalrous traits. Of 
the bad sides of the earlier conquistador he had more than 
a double portion; he was cold, calculating, and inflexible, 
shrinking from no cruelty and without a trace of the emo- 
tionalism which made Cortez so popular among his men. 

Before giving a concrete shape to his scheme of con- 
quest, he formed a commercial arrangement with Almagro 



358 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

an adventurer, and Luque a priest and schoolmaster of 
Panama, for the purpose of getting a financial backing. 
The first essay made in 1524 ended without tangible re- 
sults. The coast of Peru was seen, and the adventurers 
were long enough on shore at Tumbez to see a surprisingly- 
large number of gold and silver ornaments. They were 
not sufficiently strong to carry them oflf, but they had seen 
enough to pay for the hardships of their three years' trip 
south and back. Pizarro then betook himself to Spain to 
get further support, and before he returned to Panama he 
had made personal arrangements with the government 
with respect to the basis on which he would carry out his 
plan of conquest. Some jealousy arose because of Pizarro's 
manifest intention to assume the place of senior partner; 
the proposed expedition was saved only by the diplomacy 
of Luque, who again drew together his two comrades. 
Finally, in 1532, Pizarro sailed away from Panama with 
three ships carrying in all 120 men and 36 horses. Accord- 
ing to the plan accepted, Almagro was to follow with re- 
inforcements, while Don Luque remained in Panama to 
prevent outside interference with the combination. News 
had come, as we have mentioned, to the ears of Huaina 
Ccapac of the landing of white men at Tumbez in 1525. 
Between this date and the year of Pizarro's second trip 
had intervened the period of civil war between the 
rival claimants, with the captivity of the legitimate son, 
Huascar, in the spring of 1532. By April, after a two 
months' trip down the coast, Pizarro arrived off the pue- 
blo of Tumbez. He found it abandoned and dismantled. 
Spending some time exploring the neighborhood, he 
founded the town of San Miguel, and was put in possession 
of the facts that gave him his opportunity for advance intc^ 
the interior. Huascar, desiring to get the cooperation of 
the Spaniards in maintaining his hold on the country, sent 
messengers to Pizarro with such encouraging words that 
the plan of conquest could already be outlined. Pizarro 
knew how, by making use of the divisions of the natives, 
Cortez had taken Mexico; his own opportunity had come 
sooner than he had expected. '' If the land had not been 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 359 

divided/' said Pedro Pizarro, "we should have been able 
neither to enter nor conquer it." On September 24, 1532, 
only about 200 Europeans, all told, set out; but the num- 
ber of natives in Pizarro's army was considerable. All 
the partisans of Huascar in the neighborhood were ex- 
pected to join the Spaniards, because before setting out 
Pizarro had announced his intention of supporting Huas- 
car, the " natural lord of the country." 

The Spaniards had, however, not made much progress 
towards the pueblo of Caxamalca when word came from 
Atahuallpa, the other claimant, that he desired the friend- 
ship of Pizarro ; to reinforce his friendly sentiments a pres- 
ent accompanied the message. Pizarro spoke, in reply, of 
his desire for the Inca chieftain to be his friend and 
brother, and explained that his chief purpose in coming 
was to teach the principles of the Christian religion. 
Shortly after this official description of his mission had 
been given Pizarro moved forward; no opposition was of- 
fered, although in one place a large river had to be crossed 
where resistance would have been easy. 

In order to obtain information about Atahuallpa efforts 
were made, without success, to get some account of his in- 
tentions. An Indian chief was tortured; his information 
was that the Inca was preparing to make war, in three 
places, on the Christians; later on it was reported that 
Atahuallpa was near Caxamalca with over 50,000 warriors. 
Perplexed, Pizarro employed a native notable to go to 
Atahuallpa as a friendly envoy to make clear to him that 
the Spaniards were coming as allies. As Pizarro's men be- 
gan to fear that they would be exposed to attack on the 
last stage of the journey, they were comforted by their 
commander's assurance that they were really nothing more 
than peaceful missionaries of God and representatives of 
their king to ignorant heathen to whom they wished no 
harm. 

The fears of the adventurers were set at rest by dis- 
covering from the natives they passed on their march up 
the sierras, that Atahuallpa was not preparing to meet 
them in anything but a peaceful fashion. In the difficult 



36o THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

region through which they were being led, their advance 
could have been checked by a slight display of force. But 
the friendly attitude of the Inca chieftain was proved on 
several occasions by the appearance of messengers with 
food; Pizarro promised, on his side, that he would help 
to put down any remaining disaffection. On the part of the 
inhabitants there was no reason to suspect that the orders 
given by their superiors to serve and obey tTie newcomers 
were not reasonable. The general impression among the 
natives was that the Europeans were children of their god, 
the sun. Naturally this belief tended to give them a sacred 
character. Up to the present, indeed, there had been no 
conflicts with the natives except at Tumbez and at Puna, 
where the opposition was confined to a few hundred In- 
dians. On the arrival in Caxamalca, Pizarro still kept up 
the ruse of being an ingenuous tourist ; he sent personally to 
Atahuallpa to beg for an interview, insisting on his willing- 
ness to help him, and promising, if enemies were pointed 
out, he would send his men to reduce them. 

Pizarro had now no difficulty in applying the scheme of 
conquest so successfully illustrated by Cortez in Mexico, 
but common enough to the conquistadors everywhere. By 
getting possession of the chief, the Spaniards made sure 
of the people; like Montezuma in Mexico, Atahuallpa in 
Peru was adored as a god. To put the capture of the Inca 
into execution was not difficult. He was invited to be pres- 
ent at a feast given by Pizarro. Under cover of this hos- 
pitable act his person could be seized. The risk came from 
the fact that he had about him 30,000 men. The night 
before the plot was to be carried out the Spanish camp 
gave itself up to religious exercises, the captain Pizarro 
taking the lead in encouraging his men to face the coming 
danger. Much comfort was derived from the assurances of 
the ecclesiastics who accompanied the expedition that God 
was on their side and would aid them to put his enemies 
to confusion. Careful arrangements had been made that 
the Spanish men-at-arms should be held in readiness in 
their quarters, prepared to sally into the square of the 
town at a moment's notice. The artillerymen were bidden 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 361 

to train their guns on the Inca camp, and fire on it when the 
command was given. Pizarro took with him twenty men to 
aid in the seizure of Atahuallpa. In the great square 
where the Spaniards were lodged no one was to leave 
quarters until the artillery fire began. Much help was ex- 
pected from the horsemen in causing a panic among the 
Indians, and they were told to put little bells on the harness. 

The square of the pueblo that Pizarro selected to carry 
out his plan seemed expressly constructed for the deed. 
Triangular in shape, there were but two means of egress 
from it — two doors which gave access to the streets of the 
town. When the time appointed came, as the Inca chief 
delayed, Pizarro sent word to him to be expeditious, as the 
meal was being delayed until he arrived. Atahuallpa, tak- 
ing an escort of 6000, who were unarmed except for small 
cudgels and slings, came into the square. Here there was 
every appearance of festivity; some of the men were danc- 
ing and singing; some carried plates and crowns of gold and 
silver. In a litter, made of gold and silver, Atahuallpa was 
borne along through the files of his escort, who parted ranks 
when he appeared, all keeping absolute silence. He then 
listened to a harangue from a Spanish friar inviting him to 
obey the Pope and receive the faith of Christ, and also to 
become the friend and tributary of the King of Spain. 
Otherwise he was threatened with the fate of an enemy; 
the Spaniards told him they would abolish all idols, " so 
that you may leave the lying religion of your many and 
false gods." 

Atahuallpa, in his answer, objected to taking the prof- 
fered position of tributary, but wished to be a friend of the 
King of Spain ; he also declined to receive his kingdom at tfie 
hands of the Pope, as the friar had told him the King of 
Spain had done. On theological points he showed himself 
a skilled disputant, contrasting the Christian God, who had 
died, with the sun and moon, who had never died. He also 
inquired of the friar how he knew that the G06, of the 
Christians had created the world. The pious friar gave him 
his Breviary, explaining that he had learnt of the Creator 
from that book. Atahuallpa looked at it^ opened its pages, 



362 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

first thanked him, then threw it on the ground, saying it 
told him nothing of the kind. Indignantly the friar picked 
up the Breviary and rushed to Pizarro, crying out, " The 
Gospels are on the ground. Vengeance! Christians, at 
them ! they do not wish our friendship nor our law ! 
Kill these dogs who despise God's law. Go on, and I 
absolve you." 

At this instant the guns were fired, the trumpets sounded, 
and the infantry and cavalry came forth from their shelters. 
The sight of the armed warriors on their horses and the 
noise of the guns threw the Indians into a panic. In the 
rush to get out of the square, part of the wall surrounding 
it, was broken down. The Indians fell on top of one an- 
other, closely pursued by the horsemen, who trampled them 
down without mercy. Those who held their ground inside 
the inclosure were dealt with by the foot soldiers, and most 
of them were killed. There was no resistance, for the na- 
tives were practically unarmed. Atahuallpa was, as had 
been agreed, taken alive, many of his nobles giving up their 
lives to protect his person from attack. As the members of 
his bodyguard fell, their places were taken with desperate 
heroism by others of the group. 

The massacre was likened by one of the chroniclers to 
the killing of sheep. The victims numbered more than 
10,000, and only 200 escaped. Not a Spaniard perished nor 
even was wounded except Pizarro, who had a flesh wound 
in the hand, inflicted accidentally by one of his own men. 
Pizarro's act in hewing down this crowd of Peruvians, 
unarmed and panic-stricken, recaUs the worst features of the 
Mexican conquest, the massacre of Cholula and the attack 
made by Alvarado on the Mexican chiefs while they were 
celebrating a religious festival. 

The next day was spent in sacking the palace of Ata- 
huallpa, whose rich stores of gold and silver were discovered. 
Next came the question of the disposition of the captives, 
8000 or more. It was actually proposed that the warriors 
should be killed or have their hands cut off, but Pizarro, 
who had not been trained in vain to the economic principles 
of conquest, decided that all should be reduced to slavery. 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 363 

The reduction of Atahuallpa to the status of a prisoner 
had the desired effect. The subordinate chiefs made their 
peace. This was a welcome escape from further hostihties, 
but Pizarro was more interested in arranging terms for the 
ransom which Atahuallpa was willing to give to receive his 
liberty. The gold and silver kept coming in; sometimes 
in one day 70,000 pesos were received. 

Pizarro not being satisfied with the industry of the na- 
tives in getting treasure, Spanish emissaries were sent to 
Cuzco. Under their experienced hands the supplies in- 
creased ; in one day 200 loads of gold and 25 of silver were 
brought into Caxamalca. Much of the precious metal was 
made up of strips taken from the walls of the temples, which 
were tapestried in this way. Some ornaments are men- 
tioned; such as a fountain made entirely of gold and a 
golden footstool weighing 18,000 pesos. All was melted 
down except a few objects of small weight, kept and sent to 
the King of Spain as curiosities. 

Despite the paying of this enormous ransom, there was 
no question of keeping faith with their captive. He was 
only in the way now that Pizarro had the enormous ransom. 
His death would remove a dangerous rallying point, and 
by it his people would be thrown into such confusion that 
they would submit the more easily to the yoke that was be- 
ing prepared for them. Like the chief of the Aztecs, 
Cuauhtemoc, Atahuallpa was charged with disloyalty to the 
Spanish crown, of which he was assumed to be a dependent. 
As the zealous representative of his King, Pizarro passed 
sentence of death on his prisoner, commanding that it be 
executed by burning. All protests from the victim were 
unheeded, even when he assured his conquerors that 
through him they could keep the Indians on terms of good 
will. '' If," he said, '' they wished gold and silver, he was 
ready to hand over twice the amount they had already re- 
ceived." As they did not believe he could keep any such 
engagement, they refused to defer the day of execution. 
When the pile was ready, Atahuallpa, on finding that if he 
became a Christian, he would not be burnt, went through 
the form of conversion. Pizarro ordered that he should be 



364 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

bound to a stake on the square of the pueblo and strangled. 
(August 29, 1533.) 

One of Atahuallpa's brothers was then proclaimed chief 
by the Spaniards, and with this " roi faineant " in tow 
Pizarro set out on the two months' march to the capital, 
Cuzco. Before he came to the neighborhood of the leading 
pueblo, Inca warriors disputed with some obstinacy his fur- 
ther progress; but the presence of their chieftain with 
Pizarro prevented anything like a serious rising of the peo- 
ple. Disgusted with this most untoward event, Pizarro 
blamed an Inca general, who had been made a prisoner at 
Xauxa, for the resistance made on the march. This was 
enough to prove his guilt; the prisoner was condemned to 
death and burnt alive a short distance from Cuzco. Even 
this flagrant outrage failed to move the Incas to any or- 
ganized effort to stay the European advance; instead of 
moving aggressively, Manco, the brother of Huascar, came 
voluntarily to Pizarro asking his protection, hoping by his 
aid to become the chieftain of the Incas. This alliance 
made it easy for the Spaniards, posing as the supporters of 
the regular line, to get within the walls of Cuzco without 
opposition, on November 15, 1533. The great massive 
pueblo with the fortress and temple of the sun, and with its 
extensive population, was a rich prize. Everything in the 
way of gold was quickly removed, and the humble follow- 
ers of the modest commercial undertaking so recently or- 
ganized at Panama found themselves in the possession of 
wealth. But the great drawback was the high price of pro- 
visions by which the adventurers lost some of the treasure 
that had fallen to their share. Under such conditions of 
forced hospitality Pizarro arranged for the elevation of 
Manco as Ccapac-Inca or overlord. At the same time 
Cuzco received the gift of municipal government, March 
24, 1534. Pizarro, not forgetful of his own services, took 
the title of governor, and everything was speedily changed. 
Cuzco now had a bishop, a cathedral was built, monasteries 
and convents arose as if by magic, and all the famous tem- 
ples were transformed into churches. 

Things were moving expeditiously and smoothly in 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 365 

Pizarro's favor, until he learnt of the arrival at a place 
not far from Quito of an officer of Cortez, Pedro de Al- 
varado, the governor of Guatemala, with an expedition of 
500 Europeans and more than 2000 Indian allies. This 
interference seemed likely to cause trouble, until Alvarado 
was persuaded to sell his army and everything in it to 
Pizarro. The sum handed over to avoid a competitive con- 
quest, which would have meant loss of life and, more im- 
portant still, from the point of view of these experts in 
exploitation of subject races, loss of time, was considerable. 
Alvarado withdrew with something like $2,000,000 ; gauged 
by the standards of butchery, rapacity, and knavery in the 
West Indies and in Mexico, this was a splendid bargain. 
But, as Alvarado had only set his foot on Peruvian soil, 
he had not yet begun to reckon imperially ; he was certainly 
far removed still from Pizarro's poetic fancy in finance. 
Now that there was no longer a chance for such awkward 
interruptions, Pizarro set about the foundation of a new 
capital for Peru. Cuzco, bein^g far distant from the sea- 
coast, was manifestly unsuitable, and acordingly Lima was 
founded on the 6th of January, 1535, to be the center of 
this new colonial possession. Preparations were already 
under way for a regular administration with Pizarro at 
the head, after the model of the rule established by Cortez 
in Mexico. 

The royal fifth of the treasure taken was so large that it 
removed all obstacles at Madrid. Detailed confirmation 
was given to the general concessions made to Pizarro, and 
their territorial extent was amplified by adding seventy 
leagues of land to the south. Almagro received a conces- 
sion extending from the southern limit of Pizarro's province 
200 leagues. To the northern territory was given the name 
New Castile, to the southern, New Toledo ; but the Indian 
names, Peru and Chili, were too strongly imbedded in 
native usage to be forced out of existence. 

When Almagro was sent by Pizarro to Cuzco with or- 
ders to use it as a starting-point for the southern territory 
that had been assigned to him, the lieutenant took the op- 
portunity of claiming that the Inca capital was situated 



366 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

south of Pizarro's concession, and, therefore, was a part 
of his own land. This difficulty being patched up on June 
,12, 1535, Almagro set out for the conquest of Chili, while 
Pizarro began the establishment of a new seacoast town, 
Trujillo, and pushed forward the building of Lima. 

The native population was dealt with after the " re- 
partamiento " plan. Under the burden of their new op- 
pressors, the Indians, who had for so long submitted to' 
the cruder tyranny of the Inca chiefs, rose in revolt. 
Manco, a scion of the old house, placed himself at the head 
of the anti-Spanish movement, and the first success of the 
natives was the capture of the citadel of Cuzco, February, 

1536. In the meantime the Spaniards who lived in isolated 
plantations had been massacred. Both the new towns, 
Lima and Trujillo, were invested. After a time the citadel 
of Cuzco was retaken from the natives, but Juan, one of 
Pizarro's brothers, met his death in the fighting. As a 
relief expedition Pizarro sent to Cuzco more than 400 
men, of whom 200 were cavalry, but they never succeeded 
in crossing the Sierra. Aid was then asked from the neigh- 
boring colonies of Panama, Guatemala, and Mexico. With 
the help of abundant reinforcements, Cuzco was retaken, 
and the obstinacy of the Spaniards in holding their ground 
for six months discouraged the Indians from further efforts 
to cut off the old capital. 

When Almagro discovered the unattractive character of 
his newly assigned province, where the population was hos- 
tile and the land largely a desert, he returned along the 
western declivities of the Andes to reassert his claims on 
Cuzco. Arriving there in April, 1537, he made a successful 
night attack on the place, and took Pizarro's brother, Fer- 
nando, prisoner. Near Cuzco Alvarado was stationed with 
500 men at Xanca, and here a battle took place on July 12, 

1537, in which Alvarado was beaten and taken prisoner. 
Almagro then set out for Lima. He and Pizarro, after a 
meeting at Mala on November 13, 1537, agreed to submit 
the question of the limits of their provinces to arbitration, 
arranging in the meantime that Almagro should hold Cuzco 
and Ferdinand Pizarro should have Caxamalca. But this 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 367 

arrangement was not carried out. Ferdinand soon after 
organized an expedition to recapture Cuzco, and another 
battle was fought with Almagro in April, which resulted in 
the latter being taken prisoner. After being given the sem- 
blance of a trial, he was put to death on July 8, 1538, by 
Fernando. Francis Pizarro, who denied complicity in Al- 
magro's death, treated the latter's son kindly, but he did 
not forget to reward his own brothers, after he had made 
his triumphal entrance into Cuzco, with large landed estates. 
To Gonzalo he gave the district of Lake Titicaca, which in- 
cluded the mines of Potosi. 

The assassination of Almagro stirred up indignation 
among his friends, who determined, that when the official 
explanations were presented in Spain by Pizarro's emis- 
saries, their side should be given a hearing. In the mother 
country, the authorities refused to distinguish between the 
claims of the two factions. What was plain was that dis- 
sensions in the colony could only damage Spanish control, 
and might lead to a restoration of Indian rule there. Ac- 
cordingly a royal commissioner was sent out with ample 
powers. 

Before the new official arrived, Pizarro showed his char- 
acteristic industry in expanding the sphere of Spanish in- 
fluence. Groups of adventurers were sent out in different 
directions, and plans were made which ended in the founda- 
tion of Santiago in Chili. One of Pizarro's brothers was 
sent off with an army of 340 Europeans and 4000 Indians 
to conquer tTie country east of the Andes. Led by the usual 
stories of the existence of gold and precious stones in far- 
distant regions, the Spaniards in this expedition, overcom- 
ing the most extraordinary natural difficulties in their march, 
succeeded in reaching one of the tributaries of the Amazon. 
A boat was then built by means of which one of the mem- 
bers of the party, Orellana, with a few companions, made 
the long trip to the ocean, and finally succeeded in reaching a 
Spanish colony on one of the islands of the Antilles. This 
was a unique achievement, for the vessel in which he sailed 
was constructed of green timber, there was no compass, no 
pilot was to be had, and provisions had to be collected from 



368 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

the natives along the bank of the river, who sometimes re- 
ceived the strangers with no friendly welcome. Orellana, 
in relating his achievements, demonstrated the creative 
power of his imagination as well as his heroism. He 
told of seeing nations so rich that the roofs of their temples 
were covered with plates of gold, and also related how he 
had passed through a republic controlled by women, who by 
the force of their arms had acquired the rule over a consid- 
erable tract of country. From these fictions of Orellana 
originated the belief in the existence of a region called 
El Dorado, and the conviction that somewhere in the center 
of South America there existed a community of Amazons. 

In 1545 the silver mines of Potosi were discovered, an 
event which played an enormous role in the colonization of 
the country, because its wealth realized the most sanguine 
hopes of Jhe adventurers. Upper Peru — or as it is now 
called, BoHvia — became the greatest silver mining country 
in the known world. Meanwhile the success of Pizarro's 
administration stirred up among Almagro's friends increas- 
ing bitterness, for they saw no chance of receiving a share 
of the good fortune which was being showered upon the 
governor, his brothers, and his favorites. Almagro's son, 
who was in Lima, made that town the central point of the 
faction that was bent on Pizarro's ruin. The governor, 
though aware of the existence of these intrigues, affected 
to treat them with disdain. He relied on the possession of 
absolute power as the complete protection against any 
plot. This foolhardy attitude was taken advantage of by 
the conspirators, who, without much difficulty, penetrated 
into his house and put him to death June 26, 1541. Even 
Pizarro's own followers, the men who had shared with 
him the dangers of the conquest and the spoils of victory, 
raised no hand to avenge his murder. His Borgia-like 
character had alienated all, except his immediate relatives 
whom, as has been said, he had elevated to high positions. 

When the governor from Spain, Vaca de Castro, reached 
the country, he proceeded to inflict strict justice on the 
conspirators. After an armed conflict near Cuzco, between 
the partisans of Almagro and the upholders of the au- 



SPANISH CONQUERORS 369 

thority of the home government, most of those who were 
guilty of the murder of Pizarro fell into the governor's 
hands, who promptly executed them as rebels (1542). 
But the country was not destined to enjoy tranquillity long. 
Gonzalo Pizarro, the brother of the *' conquistador," ac- 
quired by force the possession of the colony, and succeeded 
in extending his rule over Peru and its various dependen- 
cies. He even sent north a fleet which captured Panama 
and so got command of the western ocean. But the usurp- 
er's rule did not last long, for, when he was disowned by 
the home government, he found himself unable to main- 
tain his authority over the colonists. Like his more fa- 
mous brother, Gonzalo died the death of a malefactor, and 
the vast possessions acquired on the west coast of South 
America by the adventurers of the earlier period of Span- 
ish conquest came under the systematic and regular control 
of the Spanish bureaucratic machinery. 

By the middle of the sixteenth century the spectacular 
features of the conquest of Spanish America vanished away. 
Large and unexplored territories were indeed added to the 
monarchy of Spain, but as the lands so annexed were popu- 
lated by Indian tribes in no higher state of culture than those 
found in the lesser Antilles, the methods of conquest were 
but a repetition of those employed by the adventurers of an 
earlier period. On the whole it may be said that the treat- 
ment of the natives improved, especially in those districts 
where there was no mining or where gold could be dis- 
covered near the surface. Long after the complete admin- 
istrative organization of the conquered lands in Mexico, 
of Central America, of the northern portions of South 
America, and of the Pacific slope of that continent, the 
colonies on the Atlantic side, even if they were founded 
earlier, were less attractive to the colonist. The Jesuits 
first appeared in Paraguay in 1586, though Uruguay was 
opened up for settlement some time before. The town of 
Buenos Ayres was established in 1538 amid surroundings 
which gave little hope to colonial settlement. The original 
group of 3000 Europeans who entered the new Province of 
La Plata were almost exterminated by disease and by the 



370 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

fatiguing and incessant warfare with the savage races about 
them. 

From the point of view of the old mercantile system of 
political economy, Spain's colonial policy was advantageous 
to the home government. It is usual to expose the failure 
of the government of Madrid to manage its vast empire 
under any other ideals than those of absolutism, but when 
one considers the size and novelty of the experiment that 
Spain was making in these Western lands, and when one 
estimates broadly the stage of civilization so soon reached 
in a large number of new communities, it must be allowed 
that to the government of the peninsula is to be ascribed 
the credit of accomplishing a task practically unparalleled 
in modern history. The work was not thoroughly done; 
there were grave and deplorable defects. Yet without ac- 
cepting at all the truth of the dictum that whatever is, is 
right, it can be said that no colonial possessions of other 
powers during the same century offered the same problems 
as those confronted by Spain, and nowhere in North 
America was the progress of extensive occupation and in- 
tensive civilization so definitely marked. 

The Spanish colonial empire has had the misfortune of 
being exposed to much the same sort of depreciation as the 
Byzantine Empire; in both cases investigation has dimin- 
ished the weight of conventional hostile criticism. Doc- 
trinaire theories of government, and unfounded social con- 
trasts, are apt to produce false standards. It is easy to 
detect faults in Spain's management of her colonies, but it 
is not easy to reconstruct for her a policy that might have 
produced on Spanish soil the sturdy independence of the 
New England town meeting, or the collective wisdom of the 
founders of the American Constitution. 




Napoleon I. 

(From the portrait by P. Delaroche.) 



NAPOLEON 



EARLY YEARS 

Corsica, during a large part of the eighteenth century, 
had drawn upon itself the attention of Europe, on account 
of its heroic struggle for independence. Its champion was 
Pasquale Paoli, whose character and patriotism provoked 
the same sort of enthusiastic attention from his contem- 
poraries that centered upon Garibaldi loo years later. The 
cause of the islanders against the city of Genoa, which exer- 
cised the right of overlordship over them, was so success- 
fully defended that had not the kingdom of France inter- 
fered as the ally of Genoa, the estabHshment of an inde- 
pendent Corsican republic would have been assured. But 
unfortunately the Genoese surrendered the sovereignty of 
the island to France. The French occupied the harbors, 
the Corsicans were defeated in a pitched battle, and Paoli 
retired as a fugitive to England. All further resistance was 
abandoned, and the island was annexed to France. 

In the Corsican deputation sent to Paris to arrange terms 
with the conquerors was Carlo Bonaparte, a member of a 
noble Tuscan family, whose ancestors had established them- 
selves in Ajaccio 200 years before. Some time before this 
visit to Paris his wife, Maria Letitia, had given birth to a 
son, Napoleon. There has recently been a question raised 
whether the traditionally acepted date, August 15, 1769, is 
correct, and some French investigators are in favor of ante- 
dating it by one year. There were eight surviving children, 
five of them boys, out of a family of thirteen. Napoleon 
describes himself as an unruly child despite the iron dis- 
cipline exercised in the home by his mother. " I was,'* he 
says, " self-willed and obstinate, nothing awed me ; noth- 

371 



372 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

ing disconcerted me. I was quarrelsome, exasperating; 
I feared no one, I gave a blow here and a scratch there. 
Everyone was afraid of me. My brother Joseph was the 
one with whom I had most to do. He was beaten about and 
scolded; I complained that he did not get over it soon 
enough." 

The father, a lawyer by profession, was engaged in un- 
ending litigation in his own behalf, which required frequent 
trips to Paris, where he was well known on account of his 
efforts to recover an estate, deeded by some relative to the 
Jesuit order, and also as a representative deputy of the 
Corsican nobility. On one of these trips the head of the 
house died in 1785 ; seven years before that date he had 
been successful in getting a scholarship for Napoleon at the 
military school of Brienne, where the young soldier had just 
completed his course and received his commission as lieu- 
tenant at the time of his father's death. At school Na- 
poleon had made little reputation as a scholar; he stated 
himself later on that it was the general opinion that he 
" was fit for nothing except geometry." He was unsociable, 
with an imperious temperament that parted everyone from 
him. One of his schoolfellows writes of his character- 
istics as follows : " Gloomy and even savage, almost always 
self-absorbed, one would have supposed that he had just 
come from some forest, and unmindful, until then, of the 
notice of his fellows, experienced for the first time the 
sensations of surprise and distrust; he detested games and 
all manner of boyish amusements. One part of the garden 
was allotted to him and there he studied and brooded, and 
woe to him who ventured to disturb him. One evening the 
boys were setting off fireworks and a small powder-chest 
exploded. In their fright the troop scattered in all direc- 
tions, and some of them took refuge in Napoleon's domain, 
whereat he rushed upon the fugitives in a passion and 
attacked them with a spade." 

He had wished to enter the navy after his studies were 
finished, but there was some' delay until, as his family were 
in straitened circumstances, he decided to enter the artil- 
lery, where the applications for admission were fewer. So 



NAPOLEON 373 

he passed from Brienne to Paris, where he again seems to 
have made no very favorable impression, except on the 
mathematical instructor at the military school, Monge, 
whose report on Bonaparte at the time he was leaving 
school reads as follows : " Reserved and studious, he prefers 
study to amusement of any kind, and takes pleasure in 
reading the works of good authors; while diHgent in his 
study of abstract science, he cares little for any other; he 
has a thorough knowledge of mathematics and geography. 
He is taciturn, preferring solitude, capricious, haughty, and 
inordinately self-centered. While a man of few words, he 
is vigorous in his replies, ready and incisive in retort; 
he has great self-esteem, is ambitious with aspirations that 
stop at nothing. He is a young man worthy of patronage." 

The new officer, who was assigned to duty at Valence, 
found garrison life very tedious; promotion was slow, there 
were no drills, camp life, nor manoeuvers; he spent, he 
says, a good deal of his time reading novels, planned even 
to write one, and took some part in the local life of the 
town, making friends among the society of petty officials, 
lawyers, and other persons of middle-class station. He did 
some solid reading also, making himself acquainted with 
Rousseau, Adam Smith, and Raynal, the last having so 
much influence over him, that he acknowledged himself as 
Raynal's disciple in his views as to the need of social re- 
form in France, which, among other things, implied the 
abolition of class privileges and the purification of adminis- 
tration. His literary attempts were various; he was 
prompted to make them because his pay of lOO livres a 
month, though adequate for himself, was not sufficient to 
help out his relatives in Corsica, where his mother and the 
rest of the family were in a position of financial difficulty. 

During the early years of the revolutionary movement 
in France, Napoleon spent a large part of the time in Cor- 
sica, where the nationalist party hoped to take advantage of 
the civil disturbances of their new rulers, and reclaim their 
independence. For a time he made their cause his own, 
and developed a scheme for driving the French from the 
island. But conditions soon changed after Paoli returned 



374 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

to Corsica. Napoleon, who hoped for high mihtary com- 
mand among his own people, failed to secure the support of 
the old leader, who suspected the young officer, on account 
of the radical sympathies he manifested for the revolution- 
ary party in France. Paoli believed in a constitutional 
monarchy, and refused to side with the Convention which 
had put Louis XVI to death. Most of the Corsicans fol- 
lowed their conservative statesman, and in May, 1793, Na- 
poleon and the whole Bonaparte family were declared out- 
laws. 

After an unsuccessful attempt to take Ajaccio from the 
Paolists Napoleon, with the rest of his family, abandoned 
the island and withdrew to Toulon. His scheme of self- 
advancement at home had failed; he had now only France 
to look to as the field of his ambition. It was fortunate for 
him that during this period his irregular connection with 
the French army, in which he still held the rank of officer, 
was tolerated. He had made himself marked by his openly 
declared sympathies with the anti-monarchical party, and 
for this reason, his independent action in visiting Corsica 
and remaining there as long as he liked was passed over 
without criticism from his superiors in Paris; indeed, his 
captain's commission was dated February 6, 1792, a time 
when he was devoting his attention altogether to Cor- 
sican affairs, in his own interest. 

His arrival in France coincided with the establishment of 
the Reign of Terror, and the government at Paris had on 
their hands an insurrection in the southern part of the 
country which sided with the Girondins, many of whose 
leaders had been put to death by the Jacobins. Napoleon 
resumed his military service at Nice, and immediately took 
part in repressing the Girondin insurrection. He also ex- 
pressed his full agreement with the Jacobins in a dialogue 
entitled the Souper de Beaucaire, a pamphlet intended to 
win adherents to the cause of the Terrorists at Paris. His 
apology called public attention to him, — the dialogue was 
printed at the expense of the state, and its author was soon 
on friendly terms with the younger Robespierre, one of the 
commissioners of the Convention in southern France. 



NAPOLEON 375 

In various towns, Marseilles included, the insurrection- 
ists were losing their foothold. The last important place 
left to them was Toulon, where they were being actively 
supported by English and Spanish allies. It was neces- 
sary to win the place, for preparations were being made 
on a large scale by both England and Austria to use Toulon 
as a starting-point to invade southern France. Napoleon 
was given the command of a battalion of artillery, and it 
was his scheme for arranging the batteries around the 
town that led to the taking^ of the city by the French. His 
services were recognized by promotion to a brigadier gen- 
eralship, a fitting reward, for it was his strategy which 
had compelled the allied troops of Spain and England to 
evacuate the one place on French territory which they 
occupied. 

The younger Robespierre spoke of him in a report to the 
Committee of Public Safety as a man of transcendent 
merit. Bonaparte was intimate with the commissioner, and 
that he impressed those who knew him as an ardent sym- 
pathizer with the Terrorists is borne out by a statement 
contained in Mile. Robespierre's memoranda : " Bonaparte 
was a republican, I should say that he was a republican of 
the Mountain, at least he made that impression upon me 
from his manner of regarding things at the time I was in 
Nice [1794]. Later his victories turned his head and made 
him aspire to rule over his fellow-citizens, but, while he 
was but a general of artillery in the army of Italy, he was a 
believer in thorough-going liberty and equality." Yet the 
fanatical side of the Robespierre government, with its 
policy of ruthless massacre, evidently did not win his sym- 
pathy, for there is good ground for believing that, after 
the capture of Toulon, he was one of those who counseled 
moderation towards the vanquished and opposed the whole- 
sale execution of the rebels. What attracted him to the 
Robespierre regime was its directness and its energy, an'd 
there is no doubt that he had a much higher opinion of the 
personal capacity of Robespierre than is held by a later 
school of historians of the French Revolution, who see in 
him a somewhat commonplace and decorative tool of the 



376 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

obscurer members of the Committee of Public Safety. In a 
conversation with Marmont, after Robespierre's downfall, 
he said, " If Robespierre had remained in power, he would 
have been able to strike out another way for himself, he 
would have systematized the laws and made them perma- 
nent; we should have attained this result without shocks 
and convulsions because it would have proceeded from the 
exercise of power. We are now trying to reach this goal 
through a revolution, and this revolution will give birth 
to a monarchy." 

As a friend and counselor of Robespierre's younger 
brother, who had already become interested in Napoleon's 
scheme for an invasion of Italy, the prospects of his secur- 
ing an independent military command were most encourag- 
ing, especially as he had just been so flatteringly recom- 
mended by the younger Robespierre to the Committee of 
Public Safety. But all chances of such advancement were 
lost with the downfall and execution of the revolutionary 
dictator in July, 1794. 

Napoleon was involved in the general ruin of the Robes- 
pierre party ; he lost his commission as general and spent a 
month as a prisoner in a military fortress. He fortunately 
had friends who interceded for him, among them Salicetti, 
the Corsican, a member of the Convention, by v^hose efforts 
the charge of disloyalty to the Republic was shown to be 
baseless and the prisoner was released, reinstated, and 
given the important mission of restoring French sovereignty 
in Corsica, which had lately declared itself a constitutional 
monarchy under the protection of England. The expedi- 
tion failed on account of the weakness of the French fleet. 
For some time after this misadventure Napoleon remained 
without a command ; the government at Paris was not in- 
clined to forward the interests of a former partisan of 
Robespierre. 

There were besides a number of young officers quite 
capable of filling important army commands, and all that 
Napoleon could secure was an assignment in the west 
under Hoche, who was engaged in repressing the insur- 
rection in La Vendee. He had no taste for such work, 



NAPOLEON 377 

nor did he desire to serve in a subordinate capacity. Tak- 
ing advantage of tlie v^eakness of the administration, he 
delayed his departure from Paris, although he had received 
peremptory orders to leave for his command. He hoped 
by the influence of friends such as Barras, whom he had 
known at Toulon, and who was now a man of weight in 
the counsels of the party predominant in the Convention, to 
secure the acceptance from the ministry of war of his plan 
for the invasion of Italy. He was not only disappointed in 
this hope, but he found himself again stricken from the 
list of French generals because of his refusal to proceed to 
the post already assigned him. 

There was no encouragement to be got out of the prevail- 
ing political tendencies, which were showing a marked an- 
tagonism to the radical revolutionary party, with whose 
program Napoleon had been aUied from the first. A 
restoration of the monarchy seemed not improbable, for 
the common people of Paris were showing signs of rest- 
lessness under the regime of the Terrorist factions. The 
members of the Convention, after providing for a stable 
government with an executive power vested in a Directory 
of five members, were fearful of the consequences of the 
proposed changes they had themselves provided, and they 
proceeded to pass a measure by which the newly elected leg- 
islative body, the Council of Five Hundred, should be com- 
posed, to the extent of two-thirds of its membership, of 
those who had served in the Convention. This action caused 
an open revolt. Forty-four out of the forty-eight sections, 
into which Paris was divided, were in arms against the 
continuance of the tyranny of the Convention. On one 
side stood the National Guard of the city; on the other 
there were only 8000 regular troops willing to obey the man- 
date of the government. Barras happened to be one of the 
commissioners of the Convention appointed to preserve 
order. He was then chosen commander-in-chief of the 
army, and, acting with the reluctant consent of the other 
members of the Committee, he selected his friend Napoleon 
as second in command, with full power to act in defense 
of the Convention. 



378 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

No time could be lost, and everything depended on get- 
ting artillery into the city to the Tuileries. Here the guns 
were stationed, before the National Guard commenced to 
advance on the 5th of October. No one knows who fired the 
first shot, but the engagement that followed soon ended 
in a complete disaster for the insurgents, who were driven- 
from position to position by the volleys of grapeshot which 
swept the streets in the vicinity of the Seine. In recogni- 
tion of his services rendered at such a crisis. Napoleon 
was almost immediately advanced to the post of com- 
mander-in-chief of the Army of the Interior, the way being 
made easy for him by Barras' appointment as one of the 
Directors in the new government. Napoleon's analysis of 
the situation, made the day after this fight in the streets of 
Paris, was characteristically clear-headed. " Fortune is on 
my side," he writes to his brother Joseph, and from this 
sudden change in his prospects may be dated that belief in 
his star signalized by his favorite motto, " Au destin," which 
became the axiom of his career, as well as its explanation 
and justification. 

Barras' services did not end here; he realized the young 
general's capacity, seeing in him a man whom it would be 
useful to have bound to him by personal obligations, and 
he suggested, and it is said, even arranged Napoleon's mar- 
riage with Mme. de Beauharnais, a well known member 
of Parisian society, the widow of a nobleman who had 
fallen a victim of the Terror, and herself a native of Mar- 
tinique. She had fascinated the soldier by her charm of 
manner and was now prepared, despite the objections of 
her friends, to give him the social position that Barras in- 
sisted was necessary for his further promotion. This advice 
of Barras was not necessarily disinterested, for there were, 
it seems, reasons of a different nature, which may have 
prompted him to relieve himself, by making use of Na- 
poleon, of further personal responsibilities he had incurred 
towards the lady in question. The marriage had an im- 
mediate influence in advancing the fortunes of the bride- 
groom, for two days before it was solemnized (March 4, 
1796), Napoleon attained the long-coveted position of com- 



NAPOLEON 379 

mander-in-chief of the Army of Italy; and on the nth of 
the same month, he set out for his new post. 



II 

ITALY AND EGYPT 

Of the great Continental Powers which had formed a 
coalition against the revolutionary government of France, 
Austria and Russia were actively inimical, and there was 
no prospect of coming to terms with them, unless all the 
conquered territories recently acquired by France were 
sacrificed. The idea of natural boundaries had become by 
this time a dogma of political faith, and even the Directory, 
confronted as it was by a demorahzed administration, by 
bad business conditions, and by an inflated currency, had no 
thought of making peace. Armies were operating along the 
eastern frontiers; and as soon as Napoleon reached Nice, 
he prepared, along the lines he had so frequently urged, to 
take the offensive against the vulnerable Austrian provinces 
of northern Italy. 

The force he took over now numbered 38,000 men, out 
of a nominal six divisions of 60,282. They were poorly 
equipped, insufficiently nourished, and had not received 
their pay. The manifesto issued to them, according to Na- 
poleon's report of it at St. Helena, held out an immediate 
change of fortune. It is a document characteristic in con- 
tents and form of the new era of glory and conquest on 
which France was now to embark under Napoleon's leader- 
ship. " Soldiers," he said, *' you are ill-fed and almost 
naked; the government owes you much; it can give you 
nothing. Your patience, the courage which you exhibit 
in the midst of these mountains, are worthy of admiration ; 
but they bring you no atom of glory ; not a ray is refl^ected 
upon you. I will conduct you into the most fertile places 
of the world. Rich provinces, great cities, will be in your 
power; there you will find honor, glory, and wealth. Sol- 



38o THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

diers of Italy, will you be lacking in courage or persever- 
ance ? " 

These promises were made good in the remarkable cam- 
paign that followed, in which Napole"on's soldiers found 
their material wants amply satisfied and their ambitious 
wishes for a career of glory more than answered in the 
brilliant victories of their general. Napoleon's plan of 
operations was guided by the principles he had outlined 
two years before to the Robespierre regime. " In the man- 
agement of war, as in the siege of a city," he said, " the 
method should be to direct the fire upon a single point. The 
breach once made, equilibrium is destroyed, all further 
effort is useless, and the place is taken. Attacks should 
not be scattered, but united. An army should be divided 
for the sake of subsistence and concentrated for combat. 
Unity of command is indispensable to success. Time is 
everything." 

The last mentioned condition was fully vindicated, for 
before the end of April the French had beaten in a suc- 
cession of quickly delivered attacks and effective battles, the 
Austrian army occupying Piedmont and also their Pied- 
montese allies. With the retreat of the Austrians from his 
kingdom. King Victor Amadeus made peace, and Napoleon 
hurried on to deal finally with the Austrians on their own 
territory in Lombardy. With the winning of the battle of 
Lodi on the loth of May, Lombardy was soon evacuated 
by the enemy, and Napoleon entered the capital of the 
province, Milan, on the i6th of May. The commander of 
the victorious army paid little attention to the policy out- 
lined at Paris for his conduct in Italy; he negotiated inde- 
pendently of the Directory and oftentimes contrary to their 
expressed wishes. When they proposed to divide his com- 
mand by sharing it with General Kellermann, he wrote, 
"Each person has his own way of making war. General 
Kellermann has had more experience and will do it better 
than I ; but both together will do it badly." By this plain 
statement, the Directors were brought to terms ; they were 
unwilling to let Napoleon resign his command, for the cam- 
paign was giving the government the prestige it badly 



NAPOLEON 381 

needed, and what was equally valuable in their eyes was 
Napoleon's novel method of conducting warfare without 
making any demands on the central treasury. 

In the meantime there were further successes to be 
recorded against the Austrians. Wherever they made a 
stand they were defeated; a large number of their men 
were blocked up in the great citadel at Mantua, and, for 
months, armies in succession were sent down from the Tyrol 
to relieve that city. The ability of Napoleon was tested 
in many hard-won fights against superior numbers ; he was 
often in critical situations, especially at the battle of Areola 
where, for three days (November 17-20, 1796), the stub- 
bornness of the Austrians held the French in check. During 
one of the critical incidents of the fight. Napoleon had per- 
sonally to rally his 'men, and, when they were thrown into 
confusion by the Austrian fire, he was in danger of cap- 
ture and was saved only by the presence of mind of his 
aide, Marmont, and of his own brother Louis. 

Further attempts on the part of Austria to preserve its 
Italian possessions proved unavailing. After a decisive 
engagement fought at Rivoli early in the year 1797, the 
Austrian garrison at Mantua capitulated, and with the fall 
of this fortress, Austrian rule in Italy was brought to an 
end. Later on Napoleon followed up these successes by 
moving towards Vienna with a force of 34,000 men. He 
was ably seconded by his subordinate generals, among whom 
was Moreau, with the result that the remaining Austrian 
forces, gathered to defend their capital, were defeated, and 
by the preliminaries of peace signed at Leoben, Austria lost 
her Italian possessions, was deprived of her predominant 
influence in the peninsula, and agreed to the cession of 
Belgium. As a compensation she was to receive the pos- 
sessions of Venice on the mainland, on both sides of the 
Adriatic. 

These manipulations of territory, so far as Italy was con- 
cerned, were directed entirely in accordance with the per- 
sonal will of Napoleon, who had already acted on his own 
initiative in his dealings with the petty Italian states. 
During the course of the campaign he had forced Tuscany 



382 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

and Naples to accept French sovereignty in the peninsula 
practically on his own terms, he had deprived the Pope of 
a large part of his territory and, after the terms of the 
treaty were signed, but before they were pubHcly announced, 
he had sought a quarrel with Venice, in order to put an 
end to the republic and so to find an excuse for annexing 
part of her territory to France. In this way he could hand 
over to Austria the fragments that had been secretly as- 
signed to that power at Leoben. The brilliancy of these 
military operations, by which the whole face of the tradi- 
tional situation in Italy was altered in the short space of 
one year, set Napoleon in such a secure position that his 
critics and detractors hesitated to call in question his auto- 
cratic acts, though Mallet du Pan tells us that the praise 
showered by the Directory on the young conqueror was 
recognized as insincere, adding, " There were voices in 
favor of sending the young hero to the Place de la Revolu- 
tion to have a score of bullets lodged in his pate." 

Napoleon himself, contrasting his success with the in- 
efficiency of the Austrians, describes his victories in the 
following passage : " My miUtary successes have been great ; 
but then consider the servants of the Emperor! His sol- 
diers are good and brave, though heavy and inactive com- 
pared with mine ; but what generals ! a Beaulieu, who had 
not the slightest knowledge of localities in Italy ; Wormser, 
deaf and eternally slow; or Alvinzy, who was altogether 
incompetent. They have been accused of being bribed by 
me ; these are nothing but falsehoods, for I never had such 
a thing in view. But I can prove that no one of these three 
generals had a single staff on which several of the superior 
officers were not devoted to me and in my pay. Hence 
I was apprised not only of their plans but of their designs, 
and I interfered with them, while they were still under 
deliberation." 

With the states wrested from the Pope, there were taken 
from the Duke of Modena and from Austria territories 
sufficient to found a republic entitled the Cisalpine, and 
with this, there was a new rearrangement of the territories 
on the west coast by which the ancient republic of Genoa 



NAPOLEON 383 

ceased to exist and reappeared with the Napoleonic brand 
as the Ligurian Republic. Both of these creations were 
after the French model, but the general of the army drew up 
the constitutions, chose the officials, and exercised the irre- 
sponsible powers of a dictator. The final terms of the 
treaty with Austria were not settled till October, 1797, 
but nothing was gained by the shrewd diplomatic fencings 
of the Viennese representatives. Napoleon, in a theatrical 
scene, at which he passionately broke in pieces a valuable 
porcelain vase in the presence of Coblentzl, the Austrian 
envoy, threatened to smash the Austrian monarchy if the 
parleyings were too long continued. The liberation of 
Italy appealed to the patriotic sentiment of the ItaHans, 
until the political realism of their conqueror manifested 
itself by enforcing on them contributions of money, art 
treasures, valuable manuscripts, all of which were sifted 
and collected by the experts Napoleon carried with his 
army. Even mathematical instruments and natural history 
collections did not escape his vigilance. 

In the imposition of these exactions, the Papacy fared 
no better than the secular princes. While the dukes of 
Parma and Modena paid 12,000,000 francs and 20 pictures, 
the Pope was mulcted to the extent of 21,000,000 francs, 
15,000,000 in cash, the rest to be made up by the surrender 
of 100 pictures, 500 manuscripts, and the bust of the patriot 
Brutus. This original method of making war pay for itself 
pleased the Directory. Great fetes were prepared for the 
conqueror, when he appeared in Paris, to celebrate his vic- 
tories. The official orator of the occasion was Talleyrand, 
who selected as the chief points of his eulogy Napoleon's 
modesty, his taste for the poems of Ossian, and his fond- 
ness for mathematics. 

But to the clear intelHgence of Napoleon, forms of adula- 
tion, real or insincere, meant little. He was making rapid 
progress towards the goal of personal rule. The govern- 
ment already suspected his loyalty to them, but they were 
weak and without moral influence. Besides, they were 
under obligations, even more binding than those based or 
the money contributions which flowed in from Italy, for 



384 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

when the reactionary party was about to get the upper hand, 
both among the Legislative Body and among the Directors 
themselves, it was Napoleon's agent, Augereau, who had 
cooperated actively with the radical element and made its 
continued predominance in the control of national affairs 
possible. 

There was no intention to diminish the weight of the 
military element as the predominant partner. By the pre- 
mature death of Hoche, Napoleon was left without a rival, 
and he did not hesitate to speak of the Directory as a 
makeshift government. The immediate question was to pre- 
vent an outbreak between the victorious general and his 
superiors, by which a return to the monarchy might be 
made easy. France was still at war with Great Britain; 
therefore, when Napoleon proposed to attack the vulner- 
able point of British influence in Egypt, with the ultimate 
purpose of advancing from there on the British domains 
in India, the plan was eagerly accepted by the Directors, 
despite the obviously Utopian character of the proposal. 
Napoleon spoke in his best sententious style of the East 
as the only place where real glory could be acquired The 
Directors were willing that he should absent himself from 
France, glad to purchase freedom from his control by as- 
signing him a new important command over the best troops 
in France. 

It is not probable that Napoleon was at all in earnest 
in planning an expedition to India; he appreciated the 
weakness of the home government, and from Egypt it 
would not be difficult to return, whenever he was needed, 
in the role of the sole savior of the country. The scale 
of preparation for this unique military adventure was most 
imposing; there was an air of mystery about it; people 
talked of its destination being Constantinople or India. 
Ships, to the number of 500, were gathered at Toulon, 
manned by 10,000 sailors and fitted to transport 35,000 
veteran troops, taken mostly from the army of Italy. All 
of Napoleon's best generals were to be with him, Berthier, 
Murat, Lannes, Davout, Marmont, Duroc, and the twcf 
popular commanders from the army of the Rhine, Kleber 



NAPOLEON 385 

and Desaix. Great care was given to the material and scien- 
tific side of the expedition. Scholars and scientific experts 
were to accompany it, either for the purpose of antiquarian 
research in Egypt, or to develop the unused powers of the 
soil of the fertile Nile valley. There was plenty of money, 
for Berthier was sent to Rome to exact additional contribu- 
tions from churches and convents. He called himself the 
treasurer of the Egyptian expedition and promised to fill his 
treasure chests. 

The great fleet set sail on the 19th of May, 1798; only 
when the ships were at sea did the troops know what was to 
be their destination. The first point reached was Malta, 
where the famous Knights, so long the residuary legatees of 
the great crusading tradition, surrendered without resistance 
and received a French garrison. By good fortune the 
French armada escaped the vigilance of the English fleet 
which was cruising in the Mediterranean; and the army 
was landed at Alexandria on June 30th. 

At this time Turkey had only the nominal sovereignty 
in Egypt, the real power being in the hands of a military 
caste, the Mamelouks, who exercised an oppressive rule 
over the cultivators of the soil, and the Arab chieftains, 
who represented the ancient conquerors of the country. 
Napoleon proclaimed himself as a Hberator, promising to 
respect the customs and religion of the land, and offering 
his help in the development of its natural resources. After 
the easy capture of Alexandria there was a long, weary 
march across the desert to Cairo, during which the troops 
so suffered from intense heat, fatigue, and lack of 
food that there was discontent among both officers and 
men. 

The final stand of the Mamelouks was made near Cairo 
within sight of the Pyramids, where they tried to rush the 
French squares with their cavalry. But the French artil- 
lery with its murderous fire decimated the advancing 
Squadrons before they could come in contact with the French 
troops, with the result that on the French side the loss was 
only about thirty men, while the Mamelouks reckoned theirs 
by the thousand* Many of them, too, were drowned in the 



386 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

Nile. The French soldiers bent their bayonets and fished 
the bodies out in order to get the gold pieces in the belts 
of the dead warriors. Napoleon grimly reported that " the 
army was becoming reconciled to Egypt." In the midst of 
these brilliant achievements, the victory of Nelson at 
Aboukir on the ist of August came like a bolt from the 
blue, for the French admiral's fleet was virtually annihilated, 
and by this disaster the French army was cut off from its 
base and, as it were, imprisoned in the land it had con- 
quered. Yet Nelson could not follow up his victory; he 
had no frigates and, therefore, could not enter the har6or 
of Alexandria to destroy the provisions and the transport 
ships which were collected there. 

One of the results of the naval battle was an uprising 
at Cairo, which was ruthlessly repressed, 5000 of the insur- 
gents losing their lives. After an expedition had been 
sent into upper Egypt as far as the cataracts of Syene, 
the country was reduced to some kind of order, but there 
were further difficulties to deal with from another quarter, 
for, under the instigation of England, the Turks were pre- 
paring to retake Egypt, and two armies were now on the 
way with this object. One of them was to proceed through 
Asia Minor and Syria; to meet the enemy Napoleon, with 
the bulk of his army, advanced through Syria, conquering 
towns as he proceeded with his usual unbroken fortune. 
The march was signalized by spectacular deeds of personal 
prowess on the part of his subordinate generals. But he 
also shocked his admirers by the horrible massacre of 3000 
prisoners at Jaffa. The excuse for this deed of bloodshed 
was that the victims had been previously released on parole 
and had broken it by taking part in the defense of Jaffa. 
The first failure in this unexampled course of success came 
at St. John d'Acre, an important seaport which was obsti- 
nately defended by its Turkish garrison, aided by an English 
commodore, Sidney Smith. After two unsuccessful as- 
saults had been made by the French, with heavy losses, 
Napoleon withdrew in unconcealed disgust at his failure. 
He never forgot Sidney Smith, and spoke of him always as 
the man who had spoiled his luck; "that idiot [bicoque] 



NAPOLEON 387 

was the only thing," he said, " that prevented me from en- 
tering India and striking a deathblow at England." 

After the raising of the siege hope of further progress 
through Syria was abandoned, and the army, suffering 
from illness and discontent, had a miserable march back to 
Egypt, their route being marked by dead and dying. Na- 
poleon showed great constancy in this disastrous experi- 
ence, exposing himself to the ravages of the plague and 
restoring the confidence of his men by his coolness. On 
reaching Egypt the French found that a Turkish army of 
18,000 men had disembarked at Alexandria; these, how- 
ever, were soon disposed of at the second battle of Aboukir, 
fought almost a year after the first (July 25, 1799). The 
Turkish soldiers who refused, or were not able, to re- 
embark on their transports were thrown into the sea. 

While the expedition was marked by such deeds of bar- 
barism, it had a more justifiable side because of the civilized 
and progressive administration given to Egypt by its French 
conquerors. Intelligent efforts were made to conciliate 
the Mussulman population; justice, finance, and administra- 
tion were reformed; even a beginning was made in estab- 
lishing something resembling representative government. 
Works of public utility were encouraged, some planned on 
a large scale, such as the building of a canal at Suez, a 
project only realized many decades afterwards. Remark- 
able also were the scientific results attained through the 
foundation of an Egyptian Institute consisting of French 
specialists in archeology, architecture, and art. Among 
its members were men who devoted themselves to pro- 
moting an industrial reformation, while others accomplished 
hygienic improvements for the cities. Indeed, the most 
durable result of this extraordinary scheme of Oriental 
conquest was the primacy of culture it gave to France in 
Egypt, a primacy she has continued to maintain even in the 
face of the military occupation of the country by England. 



388 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

III 

THE FALL OF THE DIRECTORY 

During the long absence of Napoleon from France, the 
incapacity of the government of the Directory at home and 
abroad had been continually manifested ; there were internal 
disorders due to royalist insurrections, which seemed for a 
time most threatening in the southwest, in the Garonne 
valley, while at Paris the radicals, who represented what 
was left of the Terrorist element, were restless under a 
system which they charged with disloyalty to the revolu- 
tionary tradition. There was, besides, no harmony between 
the legislative and executive organs of government* the 
Directors were not respected, some being manifestly incom- 
petent, others, like Barras, mere intriguers. 

With this weakness at home there had been displayed 
towards other European powers a consistent policy of provo- 
cation and aggression. To all of its weaker neighbors, 
France, in the hands of the Directory, played the role of 
an absolute dictator ; all of them were to be forced, willing 
or unwilling, to organize themselves on the model of the 
French Republic. Napoleon had set the fashion in Italy; 
this example was followed through French influence and 
by French aggression. When the Swiss cantons rose to de- 
fend their ancient rights, they met with no more considera- 
tion than the absolute monarch. King Charles Emmanuel IV 
of Piedmont, whose Italian dominions were annexed to 
France, or the clerical oligarchy of Rome, who had to see 
themselves despoiled of their temporal power, when the Ro- 
man Republic was proclaimed from the Forum by General 
Berthier. 

A new European coalition was brought into existence 
to resist the general movement of French expansion and to 
restore the Bourbon monarchy by invading French terri- 
tory. Much was hoped from the accession of Russia, which 
along with Austria, engaged to put in the field the largest 
masses of men. At the opening of the campaign the French 



NAPOLEON 389 

met discouraging defeats; Italy was soon lost through the 
inability of the French generals to withstand the united 
Russians and Austrians. In Switzerland, Massena, by bril- 
liant strategy kept the coalition armies in check; while 
by the superior initiative of a much smaller French force, 
a British army, operating in Holland, was obliged to sign 
an ignominious treaty and to evacuate Dutch territory. 

With some of these vicissitudes of the Directorial govern- 
ment, Napoleon became acquainted at a dinner, at which 
he and Sidney Smith met to discuss matters relative to the 
exchange of prisoners and where the commander of 
the French army in Egypt received the public papers and 
letters intended for him which had been seized by Eng- 
lish warships. Napoleon saw the necessity of leaving Egypt, 
where he was cooped up by an English fleet, and also he 
must have realized that the chance of a permanent French 
occupation was infinitesimal. With a few of his generals 
he left the country suddenly on the 226. of August, 1799, 
and, avoiding by skilful navigation the danger of being 
captured by the British warships, disembarked on French 
soil at Ere jus on October i6th. All parties greeted his re- 
turn ; his trip to Paris was a triumph ; the Moniteur reported 
that the crowd on the roads was so great that vehicular 
traffic was completely blocked. All the places through 
which he passed from Frejus as far as Paris were illumi- 
nated. Even the Directory disguised their real feelings 
and gave the hero of the Egyptian campaign a cordial wel- 
come back. Bonaparte won much favor by a discreet 
modesty of demeanor, ingratiating himself with the gen- 
erals who were defending France against the coalition, 
while he represented the Egyptian campaign as an affair 
undertaken simply for scientific purposes. His popularity 
was as unrestrained as it was real. The press was filled 
with stories about him; he dressed as an ordinary citizen 
rather than as a soldier, wearing a semi-civilian costume at 
social functions. 

But under this ingenuous pose much political intriguing 
was being set in motion. Napoleon, who was described by 
one of his brothers as " just as much a manipulator as a 



390 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

general," was planning with Director Sieyes, now recog- 
nized as the chief political expert, to be called in to prepare 
a new constitution. Napoleon cared nothing for constitu- 
tions, but he was glad to have Sieyes's influence in over- 
turning the Directory. Sieyes, on his side, recognized the 
civic virtues of his friend, General Bonaparte, but at the 
same time anticipated that the result of all this scheming 
would be to establish him in a position where he would 
exercise sole autocratic rule. 

As to whether the opportunity was favorable, there was 
a difficulty. France was no longer directly menaced by the 
coalition since the splendid campaign of Massena in 
Switzerland; besides, the royaHst insurrections had been 
suppressed, and the extremists muzzled. The middle classes, 
to whom the wealth of the nation now belonged, felt secure. 
At this time the Prussian Minister at Paris wrote that 
confidence was being restored throughout the country, and 
that even religious dissensions had become less acute. Some 
of the most questionable and unpopular legislation, passed 
against the fortunes and persons of citizens who were 
suspected by the Directory, was on the point of being with- 
drawn by the legislative body. The debate on these meas- 
ures was to conclude on the 17th Brumaire. 

There was a difference between the two bodies of the 
legislature on the question of the change of the constitu- 
tion. The more popular chamber distrusted Sieyes and 
passed upon him an indirect vote of censure of a severe 
character, by threatening with death anyone who proposed 
to alter the existing form of government. Apparently 
Napoleon's share in Sieyes's scheme was not suspected, for 
the Five Hundred named as their speaker Lucien Bonaparte, 
who had taken an oath to stab to death anyone aiming to 
make himself dictator. The compHcity of various generals 
being assured by Bonaparte, Sieyes, who could count on the 
inactivity or sympathy of his fellow-Directors, proceeded 
to set the machinery in motion by which the government 
was to be overthrown. When the Ancients met, they lis- 
tened to a vague harangue by one of Sieyes's adherents, who 
spoke of a conspiracy, by which the country was threatened. 



NAPOLEON 391 

the intimation being conveyed that it was instigated by 
some foreign power. To escape from impending danger 
a resolution was offered that both houses should meet out- 
side Paris on the 19th of Brumaire at St. Cloud, and 
that the command of the troops in Paris should be turned 
over to Bonaparte. 

As soon as this was done, there was a great display of 
military activity. The city was placed in a state of siege, 
and care was taken that the minority of the Directors 
should be kept as virtual prisoners in the Luxembourg. 
The opponents of the change in the Five Hundred had 
time enough to prepare for resistance, and they did not 
propose to annul the existing constitution on the basis of a 
rumor. Napoleon appeared first before the Ancients, where 
he made an incoherent speech, and showed himself unable 
to name the conspirators he charged with disloyalty against 
the country. When he was ushered into the Hall where 
the Five Hundred were in session, the whole body had just 
sworn allegiance to the Directorial Constitution. Walking 
between four grenadiers, his diminutive figure added no 
gravity to the scene ; he was pale, disturbed, and undecided. 
The members refused to listen to him, and cried " outlaw " 
or " down with the traitor." It is alleged that in the 
tumult daggers were drawn, and that Napoleon was in per- 
sonal danger, as his adversaries closed round him. But all 
that happened, according to the most reliable witnesses, 
was that Napoleon and his escort were jostled and finally 
ejected from the hall. One grenadier, it is known, had the 
sleeve of his coat torn. Lucien, who rose to defend his 
brother, was hissed, and finally gave up his place as pre- 
siding officer. Another conspirator, when he refused to 
pass a motion depriving Napoleon of his command, was 
replaced by Lucien Bonaparte, who, on his part, collapsed 
from the nervous strain when he was bidden to put the 
motion declaring Napoleon an outlaw. He was allowed 
to go out and find his brother, so that the whole matter 
might be peaceably settled without extreme measures being 
taken. 

In the meantime the leading conspirator, Napoleon, was 



392 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

suffering from a nervous crisis. When he was outside the 
hall, he appeared to observers as if he were walking in his 
sleep; upon trying to address his troops from horseback, 
he fell to the ground. Lucien just then came on the scene 
and conveyed him to a room in the palace, where Sieyes 
said to him : " They wish to put you outside the law ; we'll 
put them outside the hall." The story of the display of 
daggers was now concocted, and Napoleon's troops were 
told of the danger their commander had been in. Lucien 
directed the soldiers to go into the hall and clear out the 
legislature. This order was executed by two companies of 
armed grenadiers, who, despite the protests of the depu- 
ties, pushed them good-humoredly out of the building, tak- 
ing some of the members who resisted, in their arms. 

The Ancients set forward their part of the revolution by 
voting the suppression of the Directory, by appointing an 
executive commission of three members, and by demanding 
the adjournment of the whole legislative body. But to give 
the transaction a specious form of legality, Lucien called 
some of the members of the Five Hundred together, and 
they, under his direction, proceeded to behave as if they 
were a majority. An executive consular commission was 
appointed, composed of Sieyes, Ducas, and Bonaparte, to 
be called the Consuls of the French Republic. During the 
adjournment of the legislature, the powers of that body 
were to be exercised by a commission composed of twenty- 
five members of each branch. These two commissions were 
to decide on the measures initiated by the Consuls in 
matters of administration and finance and also on the 
changes in the constitution required to free it from its 
imperfections. This proposal was accepted by the Ancients, 
and the three Consuls swore to be faithful to the republic, 
one and undivided, to liberty, to equality, and to the 
representative system. 

The news of the suppression of the Directorial regime 
caused suspense, but little excitement. People were puzzled 
rather than alarmed; there had been so many transforma- 
tions since 1789 that one more seemed hardly irregular. 
Besides, the Directory had often violated their own con- 



NAPOLEON 393 

stitution; hence the illegality in their suppression was re- 
garded as nothing strange. The Paris workmen stayed 
quietly in their quarters; there was no Jacobin Club to 
champion the cause of the radicals or to act as a center 
of protest. Financial circles were reassured, when govern- 
ment securities rose ; there was a difference of seven francs 
between the quotations on the 17th Brum'aire and 24th of 
the same month. 

The royalists were happy, for they were naive enough to 
believe that Napoleon would play the role of General Monk 
in a Bourbon restoration. On the whole, at Paris and in 
the country, the masses of the people were apathetic; some 
clubs here and there protested and called upon the citizens 
to arm themselves in defense of the dead government, while 
some departmental officials were dismissed, because they 
questioned the legality of the changes at Paris. But no- 
where was there anything like an uprising in behalf of the 
Directory, which too forcibly recalled the terrible years 
of revolutionary experience. 



IV 

THE FIRST CONSUL 

The provisional consuls remained in control from Novem- 
ber II to December 24, 1799. Napoleon presided at the 
first meeting because his name began with '' B," it having 
been arranged that the consular power should be exercised 
in alphabetical order. The Consuls seemed to have no more 
authority than the Directors they had superseded. Gov- 
ernmental policy was still anonymous. Napoleon never 
appeared in public life except with his two colleagues, and 
his influence was exerted altogether in military affairs, in 
which he exercised the functions that Carnot had held 
under the Committee of Public Safety. He dressed as a 
civilian, not as a general. Moreover, the Consuls showed 
themselves most conciliatory; they published no magnilo- 
quent program and behaved as if the lawlessness which 



394 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

had ushered in their rule was something foreign to their 
own desires. No one talked of a military dictatorship; 
there was, indeed^ a studied moderation in the new gov- 
ernment. It is true a few Jacobins were placed under police 
supervision, but some of the members of the revolutionary 
convention were used as agents to reassure the good repub- 
licans throughout the country. Among the deputies who had 
been expelled on the famous 19th Brumaire, several made 
their peace with the government, while the irreconcilables 
carefully avoided any overt acts in opposing it. The republi- 
can tradition was maintained by manifestoes against super- 
stition and the emigres. An era of good feeling was now 
ushered in most auspiciously. 

Napoleon seemed to be content with the role of a Wash- 
ington, but the moment he saw there was no fear of 
resistance he took steps to secure the adoption of a con- 
stitution fitted to make him the master of France. The 
machinery for this purpose was near at hand in the two 
legislative commissions mentioned above. Sieyes was work- 
ing hard on a model constitution which was to be a mar- 
velous harmony of various democratic principles. Ac- 
cording to this scheme the people were to draw up a list 
of candidates, while an elector chose from the list those who 
should carry on the administration. The government was 
placed in the hands of a Council of State, there were 
additional bodies to act as representatives or as checks to 
keep the proper balance and to repress personal ambition 
and demagoguery. There was, besides this, a scheme to 
revive the Directory with the names of its constituent parts 
changed. 

Bonaparte, who saw no chance for personal rule in either 
of these proposals, organized a small sub-committee to 
which he presented a scheme of his own, that never really 
went before either of the committees in a regular session, 
but was signed individually by the members under pressure 
from him. It was carefully planned, but the project that 
had such an irregular origin was nothing more than a 
sham constitution. It contained no declaration of rights 
and had no reference to liberty of the press. But the 



NAPOLEON 395 

most shrewdly planned scheme for centralizing the power 
in the hands of one man was revealed in the so-called 
electoral provisions, by which the citizens of each district 
prepared, by voting for one-tenth of their number, a com- 
munal list from which all officials were to be selected. This 
system was carried through several gradations, until a na- 
tional list was reached, from which all the higher popu- 
lar representatives were to be chosen. The right of nomi- 
nation from these various lists was conferred, in vague and 
ambiguous language, upon the First Consul. After the lists 
were once drawn up no further change could be made in 
these provisions. 

Bonaparte transferred to himself the right of appointing 
all the local officials, the members of municipal and de- 
partmental councils, and so by a stroke of his pen deprived 
France of all trace of local government. His plan brought 
into existence an intensified centralization such as the coun- 
try had not known, even under the ancient monarchy. All 
lavv^s had to be proposed by the executive government; 
among the various representative bodies, the Senate, Coun- 
cil of State, Tribunate, and Legislative bodies, power was 
so divided that no single one had an effective initiative. 

All the real power was placed by the constitution under 
the control of the First Consul. According to Article 41, 
the First Consul promulgated the laws; he nominated and 
recalled at will the members of the Council of State, minis- 
ters, ambassadors and chief foreign agents, the officers of 
the army and navy, the members of the local administration, 
and the legal solicitors of the government. He named all 
the civil and communal judges of the Court of Appeal. As 
to the second and third Consuls, they had only a consulta- 
tive share in the executive power ; to the Senate was given 
the function of selecting the three Consuls, but the consti- 
tution itself designated those who were to be invested with 
the authority for the first period of ten years. They were 
Bonaparte, Cambaceres, and Le Brun. 

The constitution was presented to the people for a 
*' plebiscite ;" that is each citizen was to inscribe opposite 
his name on a register " yes " or " no." But this was not 



396 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

done everywhere on the same day ; in fact, it lasted several 
weeks, and so there was time to put pressure on different 
localities, and also an arrangement was made by which 
the new government was installed before the plebiscite was 
completed. Most Frenchmen wanted peace at home and 
abroad, and as the government was adopting a general 
policy of reconciliation, they were glad to give it their 
support, all the more because they had no real constitutional 
traditions and were sick of emotionalism and rhetoric. The 
result of the voting was 3,011,007 ayes and only 1562 noes. 
Among those on the affirmative side were a number of 
sturdy Jacobins. 

In his administration, Bonaparte relied chiefly on the 
Council of State; he was in close relations with them, be- 
cause all laws had to be drawn up in this body. He often 
presided at their meetings and in his remarks to them ex- 
plained his ideas and his program. He did not hesitate to 
treat their projects as actual laws, although the constitu- 
tion provided for a submission to other representative 
bodies. 

One of the first acts of the new regime was the passing 
of severe press laws. Thirteen papers were allowed in 
Paris, but they were threatened with suppression if they 
published articles contrary to the respect due to the social 
compact, the sovereignty of the people, and the glory of 
the armies ; or if they published attacks on the government 
or on nations friendly or allied with the Republic, even 
if the articles in question were taken from the foreign 
press. This enactment of 2J Nivose, year VIII, may be 
justly said to have inaugurated the Napoleonic despotism. 

Another law presented and accepted was a measure which 
destroyed all communal and local rights, and turned over 
the whole administration in town and country to prefects 
and sub-prefects, appointed by, and responsible to, the cen- 
tral government. Mayors, acting mayors, and town and 
county councilmen were all appointed by either the First 
Consul or his appointees, the prefects. 

The body known as the Tribunate, which discussed the 
laws and gave its opinion upon them, and the Legislative 



NAPOLEON 397 

Chamber, which voted upon them without discussion, 
adopted this measure, the first with a strong minority 
against it, who voiced, by vigorous speeches, their pro- 
tests against the suppression of all liberty. But the press 
was muzzled, and there was general satisfaction because 
of the admirable selection made by Napoleon for the sub- 
ordinate officials. The new administration was simple and 
effective, and had not yet shown the possibilities of tyranny 
it contained. 

As to the First Consul, though he took up his residence 
in the Tuileries, there was no consular court; republican 
etiquette was observed, and the title of citizen was still 
retained. When the news of Washington's death reached 
Paris, mourning was ordered in the name of the principles 
of liberty and equality. But the new tendencies were shown 
in the favor extended by the First Consul to men of strong 
monarchical sympathies. Napoleon, however, was soon oc- 
cupied with more momentous questions than the discovery 
of fresh means to paralyze republican institutions in France. 

After the withdrawal of Russia from the anti-French 
coalition, — a step which was due to the victories of Mas- 
sena, — Austria, England, and some of the lesser states of 
Italy and Germany, kept up the conflict. Bonaparte had 
no desife to see the war terminated, but he so far bowed 
to public sentiment as to write letters to the King of Eng- 
land and to Francis II, the Emperor, suggesting a cessation 
of hostilities. England refused to make peace except on 
the condition that the Bourbons should be restored, and 
Austria declined to take any action without the consent of 
her all}^. The publication of the correspondence appealed 
to French patriotism, and the answer of the nation was a 
vote of 200,000 conscripts to carry on the war. 

For the purpose of invading France, Austria had two 
armies in the field, each of 120,000 men. The French 
forces under Moreau and Massena were told off to keep 
the Austrians in check in Germany and along the Italian 
Riviera; Bonaparte himself planned with a third army 
to drive them out of Italy, in a second campaign which was 
to be the repUca of his first in Italy. Both Moreau and 



398 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

Massena showed great capacity in carrying out the strateg- 
ical plans assigned to them. Bonaparte gathered together 
an army of 60,000 and suddenly crossed the St. Bernard 
pass by a march in which the French engineers showed 
remarkable skill in overcoming the natural difficulties of the 
way. The commander-in-chief made the passage on the 
back of a mule, as many tourists still do, led by a peasant- 
guide of the neighborhood. On the top, the soldiers were 
hospitably received at the famous monastery. The chief 
problem was to get the artillery over, and this was done by 
dismounting the guns and fastening them within hoUowed- 
out trunks of trees. They were then dragged along the 
precipitous path by relays of 100 men. 

While the Austrian general, Melas, was looking for the 
French along the Riviera road, Bonaparte was making his 
entrance into Milan, where the stupid excesses of recent 
Austrian rule had made the population forget the more 
intelligent or subtle tyranny of the French conqueror. In- 
stead of rescuing Massena, who was suffering the ex- 
tremities of a siege at Genoa, he preferred to leave him to 
his fate and to risk deciding the campaign by a pitched 
battle with an enemy much stronger in numbers than him- 
self. These hazards were plainly seen in the engagement 
that followed at Marengo on June 14, 1800. Three times 
the French were forced to withdraw, and Melas was send- 
ing off couriers to announce his victory, when Desaix, who 
had been sent, the day before, to Novi to prevent a turn- 
ing movement on the part of the Austrians, heard the can- 
nonading and came to the aid of his leader. A fresh charge 
was made, and the ground that had been lost was regained. 
The first to fall was Desaix, the man who had saved the 
day. The effect of the victory was instantaneous, for the 
day afterward, Melas signed an armistice, by which warfare 
was to be stopped for five months, in which time the Aus- 
trians were to evacuate the whole of Italy as far as the 
Mincio. 

When the war was resumed later, French successes con- 
tinued, until finally the whole of the Italian peninsula was 
brought once more under French control. After Marengo, 



NAPOLEON 399 

the decisive battle of the campaign, which brought Austria 
to sue for peace, was Moreau's victory at HohenHnden, 
the 2d of December, 1800, on which occasion the Austrians 
lost in killed and wounded 20,000 men. The victory brought 
forth from Bonaparte the public acknowledgment, made be- 
fore the legislative body, that HohenHnden was one of the 
finest achievements in history, and he also wrote to Moreau 
saying that he, Bonaparte himself, had been outdone. He 
afterwards criticised Moreau, and ascribed his victory to 
mere chance, saying that his opponent, the archduke, had 
shown greater strategical ability than the commander of 
the French army. 

As the result of these various operations, came the peace 
of Luneville, February, 1801, which marked the complete 
humiliation of Austria. In its main lines it followed the 
stipulations of Campo Formio, but it added the demand that 
the Dutch and Swiss republics should be recognized as 
states under French protection. Moreover, the Pope was 
allowed to retain some of his territory, and the King of 
Naples also benefited by Napoleon's moderation towards 
monarchical governments. 

England, now left alone as the sole enemy of France, had 
been enabled, by her control of the sea, to make a clean 
sweep of the French colonies. She acquired Malta, and 
forced the French to abandon Egypt. But English su- 
premacy at sea was resented on the Continent, a league of 
neutrals was formed, and the Russian government showed 
distinct signs of drawing towards France, after the refusal 
of England to restore Malta to its ancient owners, the 
Knights of St. John. Portugal was detached from England, 
and Spain was brought into such friendly relations that she 
ceded to France the territory of Louisiana, which had been 
in her possession since 1763. 

England's isolation was unpopular at home because the 
enormous accumulation of war debts was dreaded, and the 
threats of Napoleon to invade the country were taken seri- 
ously, after he had established an armed camp at Boulogne. 
William Pitt, the soul of resistance to France, had left 
the government on account of differences over the Irish 



400 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

question. His successor, Addington, was not averse to 
coming to an agreement. After the signing of certain 
preliminaries in London the terms of peace, as the re- 
sult of a five months' discussion between Lord Cornwallis 
and Joseph Bonaparte at Amiens, took the form of a treaty 
named from that place on March 25, 1802, between France, 
Spain, and the Dutch republic on one side, and England on 
the other. Most of the colonial conquests made by Eng- 
land were restored to their owners. Egypt was returned 
to Turkey, and England agreed to return Malta to the 
Knights of St. John and at the same time undertook not 
to interfere in the internal affairs of Holland, Germany, 
Switzerland, and the Italian republics. 

Bonaparte became the hero of peace as he had been al- 
ready of war. His popularity, due to his splendid achieve- 
ments on the battlefield, was now enhanced by the victories 
of French diplomacy. His rule was firmly established; a 
new era of harmony and happiness seemed to be opening up 
under his auspices. His unconstitutional methods of govern- 
ment were forgotten in the brilliancy of his successes. But 
there were many things that showed his anti-republican 
animus, and his mania for autocratic rule. Before he set 
out for the Austrian campaign three Paris papers were 
suppressed, and censorship for the theaters was reintro- 
duced. His taking command of the army was a step not 
contemplated by the constitution of which he was the 
author. While he was absent, it is true that the executive 
power was placed in the hands of Cambaceres, who proved 
so efficient that Bonaparte hurried back to Paris, immedi- 
ately after Marengo, in order to resume the reins of gov- 
ernment. 

The members of the Tribunate showed their feelings by 
eulogizing the heroism of Desaix and relegating the First 
Consul to a second place. But Bonaparte's return from 
Italy called forth a great wave of enthusiasm through- 
out the masses of the nation, that showed him he could go 
far in repressing the opposition of the republican party, 
which was strongly intrenched in the Tribunate. On De- 
cember 24, iBoo, the life of the chief executive had been 



NAPOLEON 401 

endangered by a plot, and while Bonaparte was driving to 
the opera there was an explosion by which four people 
were killed and sixty wounded near his carriage. 

Though it was clear that the authors of the outrage were 
royalist sympathizers, Bonaparte insisted that the Jacobins 
were its instigators^ and took this opportunity of diminish- 
ing the ranks of the opposition by an edict of the Council 
of State, executed without the sanction of the Tribunate 
and Legislative Body, that deported 130 republicans to 
distant colonial possessions. Towards other less known op- 
ponents harsh measures were used, some of them being 
executed on charges of conspiracy, trumped up by the 
police. Even the wives and widows of former revolutionary 
leaders were imprisoned without trial, and fifty-two citizens 
notorious for their democratic sentiments were forbidden 
to reside in Paris or its neighborhood. 

In certain parts of the country royalist brigands were 
at work, wreaking vengeance on individuals who had taken 
an active part in the revolution or pillaging the houses of 
those who had bought confiscated property. Taking advan- 
tage of the demand for increased security against such 
outrages, Bonaparte created special tribunals, in which the 
judges were partly army officers, authorized to deal with 
all crimes of a nature calculated to disturb the government. 
With such elastic provisions, it was easy to turn the ma- 
chinery of these courts against obnoxious republicans. 
There was no appeal against the decision made by this 
body except on the ground of jurisdiction. In this way a 
sort of revolutionary tribunal was erected, which Bonaparte 
could use for the purpose of wreaking his own personal 
vengeance. 

Opposition in the so-called representative bodies was 
crippled by various clever devices. For example, after the 
return from Italy, when the period had come for the retire- 
ment by lot of a fixed number of representatives in the 
Tribunate and the Legislative Body, the Senate, which was 
loyal because filled by nomination of the second and third 
Consuls, intervened and designated those of the representa- 
tive chambers who should continue to hold office. In this 



402 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

way 320 men, who had made themselves obnoxious by their 
criticism or by their opposition, were got rid of. Yet even 
after this purification all independence was not destroyed. 
It was necessary to employ devious methods to secure for 
Bonaparte, after the peace of Amiens, his appointment as 
Consul for life. When the matter was proposed by Cam- 
baceres, so often used as the First Consul's agent rather 
than as his colleague, the Tribunate intimated that the 
recompenses for the First Consul's services should be 
purely honorary. Even the Senate contented itself with 
re-electing Bonaparte for another term as First Consul in 
advance of the expiration of his first term of office. 

Upon this Bonaparte wrote to the Senate that he pre- 
ferred to appeal to the people to know if he should impose 
upon himself the sacrifice of prolonging his magistracy. 
Using the more pliable Council of State, Cambaceres ex- 
tracted from them an edict for a plebiscite to be sub- 
mitted to the people, who were asked whether the First 
Consul should be named for life and whether he should 
be allowed to designate his successor. After these illegal 
preliminaries, for there was no formal authority for the 
plebiscite from the representative bodies, the single ques- 
tion of the consulate for life was voted upon on August 2, 
1802, with the result that there were 3,568,885 affirmative 
votes and 8374 negative. The increase in affirmative votes 
of 500,000 over the plebiscite of two years before, shows 
how many royalists had rallied to the consular system, in 
response to the favor shown them by the amnesty lately 
given to emigres and to manifest their appreciation of the 
Concordat by which the First Consul had made his peace 
with the Church. 

It is significant that on the registers almost none of the 
names of members of the Constituent Assembly or of the 
Convention appear. The men of 1789 had accepted the Con- 
sulate two years before, but they now abstained from vot- 
ing. Of the negative votes most came from the army. At 
Ajaccio, Bonaparte's native city, out of 300 men of the 
garrison there were 66 noes. Among others, Lafayette 
voted against the project, stating in a letter to Bonaparte 



NAPOLEON 403 

that the 19th Brumaire had saved France, that the dictator- 
ship had healed its ills, but that he did not wish to accept, 
as the final result of the revolution, an " arbitrary govern- 
ment." 

The next step was to secure the right of appointing a 
successor. Bonaparte had shown at first an apparent re- 
luctance to accept the suggestion, when it was made as a 
proposition to be submitted to the people. Now, when it 
was made a part of a measure entitled " Organic changes 
in the Constitution of the year VIII" (i.e., 1800), it was 
passed without any real debate by the Council of State 
and accepted by the Senate without discussion. At the 
same time it was arranged that nominations to the Senate 
were to be made from a list prepared by the First Consul ; 
this practically meant, as the Senate's membership was still 
far short of its full quota, that the right assigned to it 
of accepting or rejecting the successor of the First Consul 
was only nominal. This situation of dependence made the 
Senate a useful body to Bonaparte; accordingly its consti- 
tutional powers were increased, it being given among other 
new prerogatives the right of dissolving the Tribunate and 
the Legislative Body. The Senate's omnipotence simply 
concealed the figure of the First Consul, who set his pup- 
pets there in motion. 

So reconstructed, the whole machine worked marvel- 
ously. The Council of State, after showing signs of in- 
dependence, was made a purely decorative body, its real 
power being handed over to a private council named by 
the First Consul. The Tribunate was to be reduced to fifty 
members after a short interval. All relics of direct popu- 
lar election disappeared, and to the functions of the First 
Consul were added the rights of ratifying treaties and re- 
mitting judicial sentences. 

As a sop to public opinion, the number of electors, who 
chose the Hsts of candidates from which were selected 
the officials in the local and central government, was in- 
creased, largely by doing away with the property qualifica- 
tion, a curious feature of the early more radical republican 
constitutions. There were, it is true, elections, electors, and 



404 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

elected candidates, but all were under the direct or indirect 
control of the arch manipulator, the First Consul, who 
crowned the whole system. 

From this period begins the departure from the external 
signs of republican simpHcity. The First Consul was no 
longer Citizen Bonaparte, but Napoleon Bonaparte ; the an- 
niversary of his birth was celebrated by a ministerial 
decree. Like a sovereign the new ruler had his civil list, 
and in his residence, the Tuileries, he began to display the 
ostentatious character of court life. Military dress was 
abandoned, and it began to be the fashion again to wear 
one's hair in a cue and to use powder, although the First 
Consul still appeared with his own hair dressed in the 
revolutionary manner. Josephine took much interest in 
reorganizing her household after the model of the old 
regime; in the exercise of her taste she was allowed to 
go far, but it was remarked that women had no political 
influence in the new court. 

Judged by contemporary opinion, one of the plainest steps 
taken by Bonaparte towards a monarchy was the inaugura- 
tion of the Legion of Honor, having at its head the First 
Consul, assisted by a great council, subordinate to which 
there were 1500 posts, each with 27 officers of various de- 
grees, and 350 legionaries. This institution, which was 
endowed by national funds, was composed of members dis- 
tinguished by their services to the Republic either as soldiers 
or as civilians. They pledged themselves among other 
things to oppose any enterprise tending to re-establish the 
feudal system, or proposing to reproduce the titles and the 
characteristics by which feudalism was marked, and to do 
everything in their power to maintain liberty and equality. 

But these republican sentiments did not protect the meas- 
ure from criticism. It was opposed both in the Council of 
State and in the Tribunate, where there was only a majority 
of sixteen in its favor when it was finally passed. Even 
the Legislative Body made difficulties, as is seen in their 
recorded vote of 170 for and 1 10 against. But it was not only 
from such shadows of representative government as were 
still permitted to linger on, that opposition came to Bona- 



NAPOLEON 405 

parte's personal rule. Moreau, the hero of the Hohen- 
linden campaign, was known to have sturdy republican 
sentiments. Moreover, there was Bernadotte, the com- 
mander of the eastern army, who was openly discontented 
and was supposed by many to have instigated a plot against 
the First Consul at Rennes. There were, indeed, a series 
of military plots at this time, but the knowledge of their 
existence was suppressed by the government, whose object 
it was to impress on public opinion at home and abroad 
the popularity of the consular system. 

The Legislative Body and the Tribunate busied themselves 
with subordinate affairs such as laws governing the prac- 
tice of medicine and the organization of a notary public 
system. In the Senate the hand of the First Consul was 
seen in the liberal financial provisions for certain senators, 
who were allowed a suitable house and 25,000 francs an- 
nual income. Of course the selection of the beneficiaries 
of these favors was left to the First Consul. There was no 
reluctance in voting money and troops for the defense of the 
state, for by this time Bonaparte's personal policy and the 
national interests were closely identified. 

This feeling of loyalty was all the more intensified when, 
after war broke out again with England, the British gov- 
ernment took a hand in encouraging the schemes of various 
royalist groups. Among these were some irreconcilable 
survivors of the Vendean insurrection, led by Cadoudal, 
who planned to remove Bonaparte by assassination, after 
which it was assumed that a Bourbon restoration would 
follow as a matter of course. Pichegru, an old revolution- 
ary general, was an accomplice, and the conspirators made 
an effort to secure the cooperation of Moreau, but failed. 
Learning through his spies of this invitation, and glad of 
a plea to rid himself of a rival, Bonaparte had Moreau 
arrested, though he knew his innocence, and instigated a 
bitter press campaign against him. Police agents encour- 
aged the plot, hoping that some of the Bourbon princes, 
certain of its success, might cross from England to France, 
in expectation of Bonaparte's death. 

In this atmosphere of plots, Bonaparte seems to have 



4o6 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

lost his head, and to have descended to the weapons of 
revenge handed down among the clansmen of his native 
island when they settled their domestic feuds. One mem- 
ber of the Bourbon house was from this point of view as 
good as any other, when it was a question of proving the> 
capacity of the government to deal with its monarchical 
enemies. The nearest victim was selected for a stroke 
worthy of Caesar Borgia — the Duke d'Enghien, a distant 
relative of the direct heirs of the old monarchy, who had 
been living quietly for two years at Ettenheim in Baden. 
A detachment of dragoons was sent across the frontier, 
into the territory of a small state, at peace with France, and 
arrested the young prince, March 15, 1804. The papers 
that were found showed clearly that the Duke was not in- 
volved in the plot in any way, but in spite of this evidence 
of non-culpability, he was tried by a commission made up 
of colonels of the regiments of the Paris garrison. 

The prisoner was shot six days after his arrest, the 
sentence being executed at the chateau of Vincennes. 
Though freed from any complicity in the Pichegru plot, 
the Duke d'Enghien had tried to enter the service of Eng- 
land against France ; he had also fought against the French 
RepubHc as an emigre, so whatever may be said in criticism 
of the abject subservience of the officers who acted as 
judges in the court-martial, it must be remembered that the 
law of the revolutionary period, by which the death penalty 
was inflicted upon any Frenchman engaged in open war- 
fare against his country, had never been abrogated. Prob- 
ably it was to this justification of his act that Napoleon 
referred when he refused to listen to Josephine's en- 
treaties in behalf of the Bourbon prince. " I am," he said, 
" a man of the State. I am the French Revolution, and 
I shall uphold it." These words were spoken in a moment 
of typical exaltation. After many years had passed he 
commented in the following way on his action : " The 
deserved death of the Due d'Enghien hurt Napoleon in 
public opinion, and was of no use to him politically." 
There soon followed a report of Pichegru's suicide in his 
prison, a way of accounting for his death which, after the 



NAPOLEON 407 

execution of the Bourbon Duke, it was hard to accept as 
satisfactory. Many believed that he was assassinated at 
Bonaparte's command because the pubHcity of an open 
trial was dreaded. 



THE INAUGURATION OF THE EMPIRE 

From the excitement caused by these conspiracies came 
the movement which led to the inauguration of the empire. 
Petitions were drawn up asking that the consulate should 
be made hereditary in the Bonaparte family; there was 
considerable reluctance in using explicitly the word " em- 
pire/' and there was much wavering and intrigue before a 
member of the Tribunate, Curie, offered a resolution on the 
23rd of April, 1804, according to the terms of which Na- 
poleon Bonaparte, the then First Consul, should be declared 
Emperor of the French, and the imperial dignity should 
remain hereditary in his family. Carnot was the only 
member who argued against the change, but his plea in 
behalf of a regime of liberty found no supporters, though 
he pointed out in frank language that the movement in 
favor of hereditary monarchy was fictitious, because free- 
dom of the press no longer existed. The Senate acted 
quickly on the motion from the one popular body that now 
was in session, for the Legislative Body was adjourned. 
A decree establishing the imperial constitution was passed 
on May 18, 1804. The measure was to be submitted to 
popular approval, but from the date of its passage Bona- 
parte received the title of Emperor of the French, and the 
empire actually came into existence. The international 
situation played a considerable part in forcing the abandon- 
ment of the few remaining vestiges of a republican sys- 
tem. Bonaparte had no desire to maintain for any length 
of time the pose of an apostle of peace, which for the 
sake of popularity he had assumed, while the negotiations at 
Amiens were in progress. England, too, had no wish 



4o8 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

to fulfil the engagements of that treaty, by which her power 
would be diminished. She was interested in keeping both 
Malta and Alexandria, and her promise of non-intervention 
on the Continent was very liberally interpreted by her gov- 
ernment. 

In the light of Bonaparte's own policy a strict interpreta- 
tion of engagements would have been indeed a counsel of 
perfection, for his plans for the expansion of France were 
not modeled on the traditions of the eighteenth-century sys- 
tem of balance of power. He had schemes for controlling 
the Mississippi valley, and he also elaborated a revival 
of French colonial policy in which the possession of San 
Domingo was the chief factor. When the revolted slaves of 
that island made it impossible for the French troops to 
keep French administration intact, Bonaparte gave up the 
enterprise, and sold Louisiana to the United States for 
80,000,000 francs. French agents and officers were sent 
to the east of the Mediterranean and to India, with instruc- 
tions obviously intended to work for the downfall of British 
power and influence. Only a month after the treaty of 
Amiens was signed. General Decaen, notorious for his 
Anglophobia, was despatched to India, with secret in- 
structions to get into touch with the Indian princes who were 
hostile to England's rule, with the object of forming an 
alliance among them. Moreover, the official government 
paper, the Moniteiir, took no pains to disguise the intention 
of the First Consul to organize, on the first opportunity, 
a second expedition for the conquest of Egypt. 

On the continent of Europe, too, French aggression pro- 
ceeded without any disguise. Holland had virtually become 
a French dependency; and it was now endowed with a 
consular regime. In Italy, Victor Emmanuel, the King of 
Sardinia, was deposed, and his territories were annexed to 
France. Not contented with being president of the Cisalpine 
Republic, Bonaparte treated the rest of the peninsula as 
a subject territory and sent garrisons to the south to 
important points in the Kingdom of Naples. Just as plain 
was his attitude towards Switzerland, where he made use 
of the internal dissensions in the cantons to increase French 



NAPOLEON 409 

influence. He told the Swiss delegates, when he had selected 
himself to act as mediator in their disputes, that Europe 
recognized Italy, Holland, and Switzerland as being under 
French control. " I will never tolerate," he added, " any 
other influence in Switzerland but mine, if it is to cost 
me 100,000 men." 

As to Germany, the role of protector and disposer of the 
smaller German states was ostentatiously assumed. Russia, 
which had been given by the treaty of Luneville conjoint 
power with France in the rearrangement of the petty Ger- 
man principalities, was treated with small consideration. 
The work was done by Bonaparte, and its drastic character 
can be measured by the statistics of the changes carried out 
under French direction. In the eighteenth century there 
were from eighteen to nineteen hundred autonomous sov- 
ereignties in Germany; only thirty-nine survived in Bona- 
parte's '' New Model," among them being six free cities 
and one ecclesiastical domain. By these changes Prussia 
profited considerably, but even more so Bavaria, because of 
its well-known friendship for France. 

Under the cover of the Peace of Amiens, Bonaparte 
had become dictator of a large part of Europe. Accord- 
ingly, when Lord Whitworth, the English ambassador, pro- 
tested in the name of the existing treaties, Bonaparte re- 
plied, " I suppose you refer to Piedmont and Switzerland ; 
they are trifles; this could have been foreseen during the 
negotiations." The German publicist, Gentz, summarized 
the situation, without exaggerating it. " France," he said, 
" has no longer any frontiers, since all that surrounds it is 
in fact, if not yet in name, its property and domain, or will 
become so at the first opportunity." 

On its side, England was far from scrupulous in observ- 
ing the terms of the Amiens convention, and showed no- 
torious unfriendliness to France in encouraging the vari- 
ous royalist plots against Bonaparte's life. Besides, the 
terms of the treaty were not carried out as regards the 
evacuation of Malta or as to the conditions made for 
restoring to the French certain towns in India. What was 
especially irritating to the British government and people 



410 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

was Bonaparte's plan to develop French industry by adopt- 
ing a protective system. He not only refused to sign any 
treaty of commerce with England, but took active measures 
to close the ports of France and of the states dependent on 
her to the products of English industry. A violent press 
campaign was inaugurated in London against the policy 
of the Consulate, couched in unsparing language against 
Bonaparte's character and ambitions. He, on his side, took 
up a truculent attitude, saying in so many words that Eng- 
land's effort to secure new allies would force him to con- 
quer Europe and to revive the Empire of the West. 

In the spring of 1803, the final rupture came with a 
message from George III that the security of England 
was menaced by France. The outbreak of hostilities was 
marked by the seizure on England's side, without any 
declaration of war, of 1200 French and Dutch merchant 
ships. Bonaparte replied to this act of piracy by another 
in kind, though a more original violation of international jus- 
tice; he arrested all the subjects of England who were 
to be found on French territory, and prohibited the pur- 
chase of any article of British manufacture. The next step 
was to prepare for an invasion of England from the Chan- 
nel ports and for the military occupation of Hanover, an ap- 
panage of the British crown. On the Continent, Pitt 
formed an alliance against the aggressions of France, 
known as the Third Coalition. Austria, Prussia, Sweden, 
and Naples prepared to act together, the chief military con- 
tingents being supplied by Austria with three armies 
amounting in all to 130,000 men, and by Russia, which 
promised four armies. 

As England controlled the sea power, Bonaparte's 
preparations to invade it were futile, though 2343 transports 
were collected, and for many months an army of 120,000 
were kept in training for the passage over the Channel. 
But there was no adequate protecting fleet, and the French 
officers showed no ability in using the vessels under their 
command. The entrance to the Channel was guarded by 
English ships; all the French ports were blockaded, and 
Villeneuve, the French admiral, in an engagement off 



NAPOLEON 411 

Trafalgar, was decisively beaten by Nelson, with a loss of 
twenty men-of-war, out of a combined French and Spanish 
fleet of thirty-five. Villeneuve was made the scapegoat for 
the failure of the plan to invade England, but the scheme 
was a chimerical one from the start, viewed in the light of the 
experiences of French armies in San Domingo and in Egypt, 
where they were cut off from their base. Many critics are, 
therefore, willing to believe that Napoleon was not sorry to 
have been relieved by the loss of his fleet from undertaking 
a spectacular but most hazardous adventure. 

Before the battle of Trafalgar, October 20, 1805, while 
Napoleon was at Boulogne, he dictated a plan evidently the 
result of long consideration, containing the most exact de- 
tails for the march of his army to the Danube. In the 
meantime, the Austrians had invaded Bavaria, had taken 
possession of Ulm, and were awaiting the French in the 
defiles of the Black Forest. With wonderful speed, pre- 
cision, and secrecy enveloping operations were carried out, 
by which Mack, the Austrian general, who supposed the 
French army was near Strassburg, when it had already 
cut his communications far to the east of his forces, was 
surrounded and forced to capitulate. In this short campaign 
of three weeks, 100,000 Austrians had been dispersed by 
remarkable strategical movements, extending over a stretch 
of country several hundred miles wide. Not an error had 
been committed, not a combination had failed. The sol- 
diers truly said, '* The Emperor has beaten the enemy by our 
legs." 

Now that the Austrians were destroyed as a military en- 
tity, the Russian armies in Austria remained to be attacked. 
By a series of forced marches Vienna was reached by the 
middle of November without any general engagement. The 
plan of the Austrian and Russian generals was to cut off 
Napoleon, when he advanced farther into the heart of the 
empire, in much the same way as he had treated Mack. 
They had the advantage in numbers, for the French army 
now was only 68,000, while the allies had 90,000. The co- 
operation of Prussia was expected by the allies, if the 
Russians could win a victory, and with this additional 



412 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

strength it was hoped that the whole French army would 
ultimately be forced to capitulate. 

But Napoleon moved from Vienna with great rapidity 
and brought on a decisive engagement at Austerlitz. 
Everything was done to increase the confidence of the allies. 
They knew that the French were reduced, by the detach- 
ing of thousands of men, needed to occupy Vienna and to 
keep in check various divisions of the Austrian forces. In 
some skirmishes the Austro-Russians were allowed to win 
small advantages, to put them off their guard, and to in- 
duce them to offer battle on unfavorable terms. Their two 
wings were adroitly separated from the center by the French 
troops giving way at an opportune moment. Napoleon took 
advantage of this weakness of the enemy's center, while 
his commanders were preventing the detached portion of 
the enemy's forces from returning to the main body, to 
drive the Russians, opposite him, on the frozen surfaces 
of various ponds in the battlefield. He then used his ar- 
tillery to break the surface of the ice and so drowned sev- 
eral thousand of the enemy. 

This brilliant engagement, fought on December 2, 1805, 
cost the allies 15,000 men in killed and wounded, 20,000 
prisoners, 45 standards, and 140 cannon. Napoleon, de- 
lighted that the allies had walked into the trap prepared for 
them, commended in the order of the day following the 
battle, the conduct of his men. *' I am contented with 
you," he said. " You have, on the great day of Austerlitz, 
justified what I expected from your valor. When I lead 
you back to France, my people will see you again with joy. 
It will only be necessary for you to say * I was at the battle 
of Austerlitz ' for the reply to be made, ' There is a brave 
man.'" The Emperor might well be satisfied, for the 
renewal of warfare had not been popular in France, where 
the defeat at Trafalgar had caused depression and anxiety. 
Now all was forgotten in the glorious victory which again 
placed the Austrian Empire at the mercy of the conqueror. 

As the Austrians had been equally unlucky in defending 
their Italian territories, the Treaty of Pressburg, Decem- 
ber 20, 1805, showed how greatly the traditional balance of 



NAPOLEON 413 

power was altered, giving place to Napoleon's scheme for 
dominating the whole of Europe. Austria lost the terri- 
tories of Venice, Istria except Trieste, Dalmatia ; she recog- 
nized Napoleon as King of Italy and was forced to sur- 
render valuable possessions to the German princes who were 
allies of the French. There was also a titular diminution 
of power, because Francis II now surrendered the title of 
Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, which gave him a 
theoretical sovereignty over the German states, and ac- 
cepted the territorial title of hereditary Emperor of Aus- 
tria. To these extreme measures of humiliation Napoleon 
obstinately adhered, though his foreign minister, Talley- 
rand, wisely preached moderation to him, urging with 
unique diplomatic vision that if Austria were to be deprived 
of so much territory in the west, there should be com- 
pensation made for her losses by handing over to her Turk- 
ish provinces in the lower valley of the Danube. France, 
he pointed out, would profit by this act of generosity, for 
Austria would give up looking to England for support, and, 
as a power in the East, would be certain to excite the 
jealousy of Russia, because Russia had always looked to in- 
herit the Ottoman domains. But Napoleon's plans would 
tolerate no scheme by which any European state would 
be helped to preserve more than a fictitious independent 
existence. 

After Austerlitz the Confederation of the Rhine was 
created, a league of sixteen dependent German princes, of 
which the French Emperor was the head. Bavaria and 
Wurtemburg were especially favored, receiving the title 
of kingdoms, while their royal houses were drawn close 
into the orbit of French influence by marriages with mem- 
bers of the Bonaparte and Beauharnais families. Italy being 
now absorbed. Napoleon's sisters were rewarded with 
Italian principalities, while his brother Joseph took the place 
of one of the Bourbons on the throne of Naples. Only 
the Pope was left as an independent sovereign in the much 
reduced temporal dominions of the Church. Holland, in 
accordance with the fully developed imperial system, became 
a kingdom, in place of a republic, with Louis, the Emperor's 



414 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

brother, as its sovereign. Only one member of the family 
proved recalcitrant to Napoleon's plans, and, therefore, 
was not rewarded in this division of the spoils of conquest. 
This was Lucien, who had saved the day on the 19th Bru- 
maire and had made it possible for his brother to climb into 
absolute power. He refused to divorce his wife and marry a 
princess, and, therefore, he shared none of the favors that 
were being distributed. Napoleon's mother, Letitia Bona- 
parte, who took Lucien's side in this quarrel, was never 
declared a princess, and had to be satisfied with the honorary 
title of Madame Mere. Napoleon had conferred upon him- 
self officially the title of Great (1806). His birthday was 
kept as a national and imperial holiday on which was cele- 
brated a quasi-religious feast of apotheosis, modeled after 
the precedents of the Roman Empire. 

Although Austerlitz called forth a new distribution of 
the map of Europe, and elevated, as if by a miracle, the 
members of the house of Bonaparte, it did not give peace 
to France. Russia had not shared in the Treaty of Press- 
burg, and even the English government, which, after the 
death of Pitt, was headed by the liberal pro-French statesman 
Fox, could make no satisfactory peace terms with the Em- 
peror of the French. Prussia, whose neutrality was suspected, 
was treated with little consideration and no frankness by 
Napoleon's government. It is true that he handed Hanover 
to it, but he made no secret of the fact that he would 
withdraw his gift provided that, if he restored Hanover 
to England, that power would consent to make peace. 
There was an active war party in Prussia who were anxious 
to try conclusions with the French army, because they relied 
on the traditions of the perfect military machine established 
by Frederick the Great. They boasted of their abiHty to 
destroy Napoleon's army which had only conquered Aus- 
trians and Russians. Alexander of Russia was also anxious 
to renew the conflict, and England poured out its treasures 
to the extent of 6,000,000 pounds. 

The result was the Fourth Coalition against France, 
made up of England, Prussia, Russia, and Sweden. Hos- 
tilities began with an inflated ultimatum from the King of 



NAPOLEON 415 

Prussia, ordering Napoleon to evacuate Germany and to 
give up the Confederation of the Rhine. The declaration 
of war on the part of Prussia was most ill-timed, for the 
Austrians had not yet recovered from the defeat of Auster- 
litz, and the Russians were not prepared to act the part of 
effective allies at the beginning of the campaign. To this 
carelessness in selecting the time for commencing hostilities 
was added over-confidence in the military superiority of 
the Prussian army. As a machine, it presented the out- 
ward semblance of the creation of Frederick the Great; 
but there was an absence of intelligent direction. The sol- 
diers were badly treated under a regime of poor diet and 
strict discipline, while the officers were a privileged class, 
who remained in active service long after they had passed 
the prime of life. This artificial system collapsed like 
a pack of cards ; as Heine said, " Napoleon breathed on 
Prussia and Prussia ceased to exist." 

In preparing for this new campaign, Napoleon repeated 
the strategy of the Austerlitz campaign. He disguised, by 
feigned hostile movements and by ostentatiously remaining 
in Paris, his intention of striking one of his rapid, cer- 
tain strokes at the enemy's weakest spot. Led into a false 
self-confidence, the Prussians took the offensive with 150,- 
000 men. By means of quick concentration. Napoleon's 
army was brought up to a strength of 175,000. With this 
force, instead of coming into contact with the Prussians 
on the northwest, as had been expected, he turned their 
army on the southeast and threatened their communica- 
tions with Berlin. The victory was won by two skilfully 
conducted pitched battles, at Jena and also at Auerstadt 
(the 14th of October, 1806), where Davout, with an army 
much inferior to that opposed to him, specially distinguished 
himself. The Prussian armies were reduced to a mass of 
fugitives ; there were 20,000 killed and wounded and 18,000 
prisoners, but the victory cost the French 12,000 men, for 
the Prussians had fought bravely, though their generalship 
was poor. 

There was later a spectacular entrance into Berlin by the 
victorious army, arranged after the manner of a Roman 



4i6 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

triumph, with the Prussian regiment of the guards dis- 
armed and following their conquerors. Napoleon inter- 
preted his victory as giving him a chance to show his 
power of wreaking a personal vengeance on those who had 
so rashly questioned his power. " I will render this court 
nobility so small," he said, " that they will be obliged to beg 
their bread." He acted in the spirit of these words, and 
outraged public sentiment by carrying off, as part of the 
booty of Berlin, the sword of Frederick the Great. Over 
the conquered country was extended a network of officials, 
intrusted with the duty of collecting large money contribu- 
tions. No community was allowed to escape the imposi- 
tion, and all were made to feel their responsibility for the 
war. There was also a rearrangement of German terri- 
tories, under which Jerome, the Emperor's youngest and 
least competent brother, was provided with a throne under 
the title of King of Westphalia. 

After the defeat of Prussia, the Russians, who had been 
slowly drawing together great masses of men, kept up an 
obstinate struggle against Napoleon's generals, and little 
progress was made by the French. Marbot describes the 
campaign in all its hardships; the weather, he says, was 
terribly cold, but the troops seem to have suffered even 
more in their marches from the thaws which rendered the 
bad roads impassable. While the French army was en- 
camped for the winter, Benningsen^ the Russian general, 
tried, early in February, to force his way between the 
two divisions of the French army under Ney and Berna- 
dotte. The plan failed because Bernadotte was not taken 
by surprise; his defense was a brilliant one, and gave Na- 
poleon an opportunity for attempting a turning movement 
on Benningsen's army. This purpose could not be carried 
out because the despatch announcing it to the French sub- 
ordinate commanders fell into the hands of the Russians, 
who got away in time. In the pursuit, the Russians turned 
on the French, and the result was a " soldiers' battle," fought 
at Eylau, February 8, 1807, in which for a time the Em- 
peror's position was most critical, for his army was half 
encircled and suffered terribly from the enemy's artillery 



NAPOLEON 417 

fire. The day was finally saved by a remarkable cavalry 
charge, led by Murat, who passed through three Russian 
lines and broke up their attack. But despite this terrible 
massacre of men at Eylau, — 10,000 French and 30,000 
Russians, — no final result was attained by it. Neither side 
could claim to be victorious; it was something, however, to 
prove that Napoleon was not invincible, and, as Eylau was 
not a Russian defeat, the Russians interpreted it as a victory. 
The two powers, Prussia and Russia, agreed not to make a 
permanent treaty with France until the banks of the Rhine 
were accepted as her frontiers. 

During the spring each side remained inactive, for both 
were in need of reinforcements. Benningsen with 100,000 
men took the offensive, but after some preliminary hard 
fighting, placed himself, still on the offensive, in an unfavor- 
able position near Friedland. He had brought his army 
into a narrow ravine with the river Alle behind him, so that 
in case of a check he had only the bridges to depend upon 
for withdrawing "his men. These bridges were cut in a 
turning movement, made by Ney, while Lannes, with 26,000 
French against 82,000 Russians, kept Benningsen from leav- 
ing his position, during a space of thirteen hours. By the 
evening the Russian army had but 25,000 men under arms 
and was hopelessly demoralized. 

After this defeat the Fourth Coalition was at an end. The 
Peace of Tilsit was drawn up as the result of a personal 
interview between Alexander of Russia and Napoleon on a 
raft anchored in the river Niemen. After several private 
meetings Napoleon succeeded in attracting to himself the 
enthusiastic sympathy of his obstinate opponent. There 
was outHned a common plan of action by which both sides 
were to benefit, Russia was to gain territory in Finland, at 
the expense of Sweden, and in the East, at the expense of 
Turkey. Even more important was the winning over of 
Alexander to agree to Napoleon's continental blockade 
against England, by which all English goods were to be 
kept out of continental ports. 

But even by making this volteface in Russian policy, 
Alexander could secure no favorable terms for his late ally, 



4i8 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

Prussia. That power was denuded of territory to the east 
which it had originally acquired in the partition of Poland; 
for of this was constructed one of Napoleon's new creations, 
the grand duchy of Warsaw, of which the elector of Saxony, 
approved by Napoleon for his pro-French policy, became 
sovereign with the title of King. On the west, all lands 
beyond the Elbe were taken, to be added to the new kingdom 
of Westphalia. Frederick of Prussia had besides to accede 
to the anti-British economic measures of Napoleon, to pay 
a war indemnity of $20,000,000, and to be humbly grate- 
ful for the return of four provinces in the northeast that h^d 
been detached from Prussia after the battle of Jena. 



VI 

AT THE ZENITH OF POWER 

After Tilsit it was plain that Napoleon was no longer a 
French monarch; his schemes of conquest were now not 
made in the interest of France, for France, like the other 
powers of central Europe, was to be only a province of a 
vast territorial empire, managed for the personal profit of 
a single individual, who bestowed and took away power and 
territory, according to his caprice. England still stood in 
his way after his diplomatic success at Tilsit, but no armies 
were left to oppose him. It seemed, therefore, a compara- 
tively easy matter to master England by cutting her off 
from the sources of her wealth. No power or state was 
allowed to be neutral, for those who declared themselves 
so were proscribed along with England (decree of Milan, 
1807). A hard fate awaited any refractory nation, for 
nationalism now lived only on sufferance. To suspend the 
economic life of millions of people, to transform habits of 
industry peculiar to sea-going populations was to Na- 
poleon's mind no greater task than to annihilate armies and 
partition kingdoms. From Tilsit dates the effort to attain 
the impossible, and with it begins, in a succession of rapid 
changes, the decline of the imperial system, the strain be- 



NAPOLEON 419 

ing greater than any such artificial construction could bear. 
Externally the establishment of peace consolidated Na- 
poleon's power and influence at home; the last campaigns 
had been a severe drain, but the diplomatic success of Tilsit 
compensated for the losses in the battlefield. 

Napoleon's familiar method of using a period of peace 
for extending his power at every weak point of contact was 
now resumed. Portugal, as a state closely connected with 
England, was to be detached from British influence by 
force of arms. Nor was any consideration to be paid to 
Spain, loyal though she had been to France, her ally. A 
loyalty which had cost her dear already became more fatal 
still when Napoleon began to plan for a cession of Span- 
ish territory and the substitution of a member of his own 
house for the Bourbons. In the north, Denmark was to be 
required to renounce her position of neutrality and to hand 
over her valuable fleet of twenty ships to cooperate with the 
French. It was in anticipation of this step, that an Eng- 
lish fleet, outdoing the lawless code of their adversaries, 
bombarded, in July, 1807, Copenhagen, the capital of a 
state with which it was at peace, and seized the Danish 
ships in the harbor. 

This was the act which drove Alexander into closer rela- 
tions with Napoleon, who adroitly used the opportunity for 
arranging a formal alliance, by which common action against 
the English in the East, as well as the West, might be 
secured. His plans in their full scope are given in the follow- 
ing letter addressed to the Czar of Russia in February, 
1808 : " An army of 80,000 men, Russian and French, per- 
haps a few Austrians, which will advance on Asia by the 
road of Constantinople, will not have to reach the Euphrates, 
to make England tremble and bring her to our feet on the 
continent. I am ready on the spot in Dalmatia, your 
Majesty is on the Danube. A month after we have agreed 
to act, the army can be on the Bosphorus. The news of it 
will be heard in India, and England will give in. I do not 
refuse to accept any of the preliminary stipulations neces- 
sary to attain an end so great. But the mutual interest 
of our two states should be well combined and balanced. 



420 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

All can be signed and decided before the 15th of March. 
On May i, our troops can be in Asia, and at the same time 
your Majesty's troops in Stockholm. Then the English, 
threatened in India, chased out of the Levant, will be 
broken under the weight of the events by which the at- 
mosphere will be charged. Your Majesty and myself would 
prefer the enjoyment of peace and to pass our life in the 
midst of our vast empires, busied in vitalizing them and 
making them happy by the methods and benefits of our 
government. The enemies of the world will not have it so. 
We must be greater in spite of ourselves. It is the part of 
wisdom and policy to do what fate ordains and to go where 
the irresistible march of events is leading us. . . . In these 
few lines I am expressing to your Majesty my whole mind. 
The work of Tilsit will regulate the destinies of the world. 
Perhaps so far as your Majesty and I are concerned, a little 
pusillanimity would have us prefer a certain actual good to 
a better and more perfect condition. But since, after all, 
England does not wish it, let us recognize that the time 
for great events and for great changes has come." 

This vision Alexander desired to transform into hard 
realities without delay; the first step was to divide the 
dominions of Turkey. The question arose as to what dis- 
position should be made of Constantinople and the Darda- 
nelles. But while the Russians were arguing as to the pro- 
posed increase of territory in the Orient, Napoleon, with- 
out consulting his correspondent at St. Petersburg, was 
manipulating the situation in the West by the virtual an- 
nexation of Spain to France. The haggling with Russia 
was dropped, and Napoleon hastened to embark in the ad- 
venture which was ultimately to lead to his downfall. 

Disgust with Godoy, the court favorite, had brought 
about a revolutionary movement in Spain, which aimed to 
substitute for the reigning monarch, Charles IV, his son 
Ferdinand. These family difficulties were laid before Na- 
poleon, who traveled to Bayonne, post haste from Paris, 
to act as arbitrator. With a duplicity worthy of a profound 
student of Machiavelli, he caused to be placed in his hands 
an abdication, signed by both the royal father and his son; 



NAPOLEON 421 

the impartial arbiter handed over the crown to a third party, 
his brother Joseph, King of Naples. So, by a juggle that a 
sporting gamester might have envied, a Bonaparte came to 
reside in the royal palace of Madrid, and if kingships 
went by personal capacity, and not by descent, it must be 
said that, mediocre as was Napoleon's elder brother, he was 
far better fitted for governing Spain than either the feeble 
Charles IV or his scoundrelly son and heir, Ferdi- 
nand. 

Alexander heard of these transactions from the pen of his 
assiduous correspondent, but he cared for none of these 
things; his mind was filled with the spoHation of Sweden 
and Finland as a preliminary step to realize his dream of 
Oriental conquest. It was arranged that the two emperors 
should meet at Erfurt to settle the terms of their proposed 
dual domination of the world ; only by a personal interview 
could the question as to the possession of Constantinople be 
decided. In the meantime there were elaborate plans for 
the sailing of fleets to Egypt, and around the Cape of Good 
Hope, to overawe the English. 

Events in Spain put an awkward stop to this program. 
The population of the country had never been awakened by 
the French Revolution; they hated foreign interference, 
and, when their Bourbon king was dethroned, they rose 
en masse in revolt, with the spirit of the Vendee. News 
soon came to Paris of the defeat of a French army in which 
18,000 men surrendered. This defeat, the capitulation of 
Baylem, was soon followed by a disaster to the army corps 
which was operating in Portugal against a combined Portu- 
guese and English force. The effect of the Spanish re- 
sistance was enormous; in all parts of central Europe it 
revived the hope of successful revolt against the domina- 
tion of the French system. It stirred Prussia and Austria 
to renewed efforts; there was great activity of secret so- 
cieties in Prussia, directed against the French occupation, 
and Austria was busy in reorganizing its military forces for 
a fresh struggle. 

Napoleon realized the critical situation; antedating his 
letter to Alexander, to give the impression that it was 



422 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

written before the bad news from Spain had reached him, 
he announced his purpose to withdraw the French troops 
from Prussia, and promised to give up the Danubian prin- 
cipahties, without compensation, provided Russia would be 
willing 'to see that the Germans were kept quiet, and would 
influence Austria to abandon her warlike preparations. 
Alexander showed much complacency, even going so far 
as to express his sympathy for the eclipse of the French 
arms in Spain. 

Nothing was spared at Erfurt, where the two emperors 
met, to impress upon the world the security and the extent 
of Napoleon's rule. It was the fete of a cosmopolitan 
society, where men of distinction in all spheres of life were 
brought together at the bidding of the Emperor of the 
French. Goethe was present, also Talleyrand, who left on 
record his impression of the atmosphere of adulation that 
prevailed. The two central figures, Alexander and Na- 
poleon, showed marked cordiality to each other. Alexander 
spoke of his friend as not only the greatest but the best of 
men. Yet there were visible rifts in the friendship; Alex- 
ander refused to show hostility to Austria, an attitude 
which was secretly encouraged by Talleyrand, who had be- 
gun to fear the result of Napoleon's grandiose schemes, 
and wished to make friends before fortune turned. Na- 
poleon proved obdurate, when Alexander urged upon him 
a more generous treatment of Prussia. 

In the formal treaty, the result of the meeting, there was 
incorporated a proposition of peace with England on the 
basis of the status quo — i.e., Finland and the Danubian prin- 
cipalities for Russia and the deposition of the Bourbons in 
Spain. Alexander would go no further as regards Austria 
than the prospect of armed cooperation, if Austria went to 
war against France. Among the subjects proposed was the 
marriage of Napoleon with a Russian princess. He had 
been considering for some time a divorce from Josephine, 
a plan now resolved upon after the birth of an illegitimate 
son had convinced him that there was the possibility of a 
direct heir. Alexander, encouraged by Talleyrand's advice, 
refused to make a frank engagement to forward this scheme, 



NAPOLEON 423 

saying that to his mother alone belonged the disposition 
of his sisters' marriage arrangements. 

After the meeting at Erfurt, Napoleon hastened to Spain, 
where, fighting several successful battles, he restored his 
brother to his capital at Madrid, and forced an English 
army under Moore to retreat towards the sea coast. This 
was in January, 1809. Then Napoleon was obliged to with- 
draw from Spain because of the threatening attitude of 
Austria, now firmly resolved on opening hostilities with 
France. There were also evidences brought him of a plot in 
Paris, the responsibility for which rested on Talleyrand and 
Fouche, both long in service under him. It was arranged 
between them that in case of a reverse or a successful at- 
tempt on Napoleon's life, they were to take charge of the 
government, giving it a figurehead in the person of Murat, 
Napoleon's brother-in-law. Long before he was expected. 
Napoleon appeared suddenly in Paris, having ridden from 
the north of Spain in six days. For a while Talleyrand 
was in disgrace, but acts of personal revenge were forgot- 
ten in the preparation for crushing Austria. It was a most 
distasteful task, for he feared to break up his friendship 
with Alexander, the necessary result of dismembering the 
Austrian Empire. He therefore tried to secure the inter- 
vention of Russia, but Alexander refused to act at all 
vigorously. 

Hostilities broke out in April, 1809. There was no longer 
a question of purely dynastic interests in this armed protest 
of Austria against the Napoleonic system; the army of 
310,000 men represented a general patriotic movement of 
self-defense that had penetrated all classes of society in 
the Hapsburg dominions. It stood ready to resist the power 
that was crushing out racial and territorial distinctions; it 
spoke for a nation in arms conscious of its national right 
to exist. At home the French Emperor had to deal now with 
a population that was weary of warfare and satiated with 
miHtary glory. To meet, on Austrian territory, this massive 
attack of the Fifth Coalition, which was made up of Eng- 
land, Spain, and Austria, there was no longer the ma- 
terial at hand that had secured for the conqueror the bril- 



424 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

liant achievements at Austerlitz and Marengo. His latest 
army consisted of new recruits and old soldiers from France 
and of levies from dependent states. 

Napoleon thoroughly appreciated the dangers of his posi- 
tion, as his correspondence with his agent at the Russian 
court shows. He was most urgent in inviting Alexander to 
play the part of an effective ally by sending troops to Hun- 
gary and Galicia, a movement which would have taken 
Austria between two fires. There were no longer vague 
promises of reward held out, but specific engagements were 
offered as an inducement for the Czar to act. '' The three 
crowns of Austria could be separated. When these last- 
mentioned states have been thus divided, we can diminish 
the number of our troops, substitute for these general en- 
listments of troops, which are tending to call even the 
women under arms, a small number of regular troops and 
so change to the system of small armies, as introduced by 
the late King of Prussia (Frederick II). Our barracks 
can become poor-houses and the conscripts can stick to their 
tillage. Even if it is wished after the conquest to guarantee 
the integrity of the monarchy, I will agree to it provided 
there is a complete disarmament." 

Alexander showed a lack of interest in these proposals; 
on the other hand, he let the Austrian government know 
that he hoped they would be successful, promising at the 
same time that his alliance with the French would be 
interpreted so formally, that the Austrians would have 
nothing to fear from Russian armies. Yet in spite of these 
diplomatic discouragements Napoleon lost none of his 
technical skill in the campaign that followed. In five days 
(April 19-23, 1809) with an army of 120,000 men, though 
the main Austrian army consisted of 175,000, he took 40,- 
000 prisoners and 100 pieces of artillery. He divided the 
enemy's forces into separate divisions, both of which were 
defeated, and so he opened up the road to Vienna. But 
the close of the campaign was obstinately contested by the 
Austrian commander, the Archduke Charles. In the neigh- 
borhood of the Austrian capital there were desperate en- 
gagements at Aspern and Essling (May 21-22). For a 



NAPOLEON 425 

time Napoleon's lieutenants, Massena and Lannes, were 
hard pressed near the island of Lobau in the Danube. The 
French advance was checked thirteen times; Essling was 
taken and retaken, and, according to general opinion, the 
primary result of this serious contest was only a repetition 
of Eylau. 

Reinforcements were summoned from all sides ; Lobau was 
transformed into a strong citadel with impregnable re- 
doubts to insure the passage of the river. In July, Na- 
poleon had under him 150,000 men and 450 cannon. On 
the 5th and 6th of the month a decisive battle was fought 
at Wagram, according to a carefully planned program. 
The Austrians were first of all outnumbered; the whole 
French army was so dispersed and concentrated over a 
distance of not more than four miles that it could be di- 
rectly under the Emperor's eyes. On the other hand, the 
Austrians were scattered, had no reserves at hand, and 
orders had to be given in writing. Successful as was Na- 
poleon's strategy, which contained his favorite expedient of 
breaking the enemy's center by an overwhelmingly strong 
concentrated attack on the weakest point, it was plain to 
him that there was no longer in his army the cohesive action 
that had made the earlier victories so complete. The 
battle cost from 20,000 to 25,000 men on each side. 
" These are no longer the soldiers of Austerlitz," he ex- 
plained ; and he showed his lack of confidence by giving up 
bayonet charges and trusting to artillery fire to break up 
his opponents' lines. 

The Austrian archduke withdrew from the field in good 
order, but Napoleon had no desire to pursue and force 
another engagement in the interior of the country. He 
trusted to the general influence abroad of the success at 
Wagram, and was glad to sign a treaty of peace at Vienna 
on the 14th of October, 1809, by which Austria was denuded 
of large sections of territory, that were taken to reward the 
fidelity of the Bavarians and Poles to their French allies. 
Under this reorganization Austria occupied a territory 
smaller than that of pre-revolutionary France. She was 
required to reduce her army to 150,000 men and to pay an 



426 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

indemnity of $17,000,000. Russia's share of the spoil was 
measured by her apathetic position as an ally. There was 
an addition of territory containing a population of 400,000, 
but this was a small gain that by no means outweighed the 
favor shown to the Poles by the annexation of western 
Galicia to the grand duchy of Warsaw. Annexed to the 
French Empire were Fiume, Trieste, Croatia, Carniola, 
and a part of Carinthia, so that Napoleon's eastern domin- 
ions extended practically without a break in their eastern 
border from the mouth of th^ Cattaro to Dantzic. Austria 
seemed to have become as much a satellite of Napoleon's 
empire as Holland or Italy. 



VII 

THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

During the course of the contest with Austria, the war 
in the Iberian peninsula went on in a prolonged series of 
obstinate campaigns between Napoleon's marshals and an 
allied force composed of English, Portuguese, and Span- 
ish contingents. Even after the victory of Wagram the 
Spaniards held on in the face of several disasters; and 
helped by the English fleet they managed to retain a foot- 
hold in Cadiz. The temper of the population was judged 
to be so hostile that the French army of occupation was 
raised to the enormous number of 270,000 and the whole 
country was placed under martial law. The King, Na- 
poleon's brother Joseph, was only the nominal executive; 
he aptly called himself the porter of the Madrid hospitals. 
As the country was harassed with guerrilla warfare, and as 
the Cortes refused to recognize Joseph as their sovereign. 
Napoleon threatened to annex the whole kingdom to 
France. 

In Portugal, a French army under Massena failed to 
win a decisive victory. It was met by an Anglo-Portuguese 
force under Wellington, who so strongly intrenched him- 
self at Torres Vedras that Massena finally withdrew, fol- 



NAPOLEON 427 

lowed by the English. In his retreat the French general 
was unable to change his fortune, and the effort to occupy 
Portugal failed. Massena was then superseded in his com- 
mand. Later on the French cause was much injured by 
the mutual jealousies of the commanders of the various 
army corps, who, if they had zealously co5perated, might, 
with the superior forces at their command, have driven 
Wellington back to the sea coast. By the year 1812, the 
French armies were stale, and although there were 230,000 
French soldiers in the peninsula, Wellington was allowed 
to invade Spain with an army of only 60,000 men. 

Napoleon was indignant at the mismanagement of his 
subordinates, and sent Jourdon to take charge of the mili- 
tary operations. The new commander not only found the 
various generals under him unwilling to act together, but 
also had to deal with a situation in which the troops were 
demoralized by habits of pillage. Their pay was in arrears, 
field artillery was scarce, the large siege guns had fallen 
into the hands of the English, there were no wagon trains 
and no supply service. Napoleon himself could not from 
a distance undertake any intelligent supervision of the 
•Spanish situation, since he was obliged to depend on indirect 
information, and when he interfered his commands were 
rarely carried out with common sense or good will. His 
own hands were not free when the Spanish affairs became 
most critical, for the alliance with Russia, on which so much 
hope was placed, proved only temporary. On both sides 
there were grievances; Napoleon was indignant at the 
apathetic attitude of his ally during the Wagram campaign, 
and he felt irritated also at the hesitation and delay of the 
Czar in arranging a marriage for him with a Russian arch- 
duchess, after the divorce from Josephine. A distinct Aus- 
trian trend was given to French policy when Napoleon 
found the Austrian Emperor willing to sacrifice his daugh- 
ter, for the purpose of perpetuating the Napoleonic dynasty. 
Intimation was given in plain terms that in the questions re- 
lating to the Balkan peninsula, Russia's scheme of aggres- 
sion would be no more encouraged nor supported. 

In Alexander's domains the continental blockade against 



428 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

England was unpopular and disastrous. With English ves- 
sels barred from Russian ports there was no more an outlet 
for the raw materials of the country. Many of the land- 
lords were in a bankrupt condition; reprisals were made 
by increasing the tariff on French goods. In a military sense 
the only benefit accruing to Russia from the French alliance 
was the conquest of Finland. No good came from French 
help either in the war with Persia or in that with Turkey. 
On the other side, the constant extension of French terri- 
tory and influence placed a sinister but natural interpreta- 
tion on Napoleon's promises to share with the Russians the 
dominion of all European and Asiatic lands as far East as 
India. 

The last step in annexation illustrated the character of 
Napoleon's present temper. Hamburg and Liibeck were in- 
corporated with the French Empire and along with them 
the duchy of Oldenburg, whose duke was closely allied to 
the Russian royal house. The Czar protested formally, but 
without moving the Emperor of the French either to recede 
or to give adequate compensation for annexing these Ger- 
man territories. 

But the severest blow to Russia came from the favors 
shown the Poles, to reward their valorous cooperation in 
the Wagram campaign. The Czar, who feared the restora- 
tion of the kingdom of Poland, attempted to secure from 
Napoleon the promise that that kingdom should never be 
reestablished. Napoleon's reply was that he would only 
pledge himself not to give any assistance to any revolt 
tending to restore the kingdom of Poland The Czar's 
anxiety was misplaced, for the provinces of his empire that 
he feared might be taken, were in no sense Polish socially, 
though they had formed a part of the ancient kingdom of 
Poland. There was no likeHhood of a popular movement 
in favor of the Poles, nor would the population have en- 
dured a pro-Polish rearrangement of their territory against 
the Russians, with whom they, as members of the Orthodox 
Church, were closely in sympathy. There was also a 
pro-Russian party among the Poles which Alexander en- 
couraged, by proposing a scheme to establish an enlarged 



NAPOLEON 429 

autonomous Poland with a constitution under Russian pro- 
tection. In 181 1, Russian troops were massed together, to 
invade the grand duchy of Warsaw, and so to encourage 
the Russian partisans to carry through Alexander's 
scheme. 

In the spring of 181 1, Napoleon, who had at first made 
light of the intimations of the hostile purposes of the Czar, 
that kept coming to him from Polish sources, realized that 
there was a substance behind these reports and began to 
collect forces from all parts of his empire to protect the 
grand duchy. Napoleon told the Russian representatives 
of his gigantic preparations, and at the same time declared 
that he wished for peace ; he asked also whether Alexander 
thought he was ready to sacrifice 200,000 Frenchmen to re- 
establish Poland. 

But the final rupture arose over Napoleon's economic policy. 
Alexander refused to give up the right of trading with 
neutrals. " I am ready," he said, " to withdraw to Siberia 
rather than accept for Russia the situation now occupied 
by Austria and Prussia." When the Russian ultimatum 
was handed in, its conditions were the settlement of Alex- 
ander's grievances with Sweden, the evacuation of Prussia, 
and the right of commerce with neutrals as preliminary 
to the question of tariffs and indemnity for the seizure of 
Oldenburg. Napoleon's unwilling allies, Prussia and Aus- 
tria, smarting as they were from past defeats at his hands, 
were not to be depended upon. On the other hand, Russia's 
hands were made free by subsidies from England, by a 
treaty of peace with Turkey, and by the valuable aid of 
Sweden, whose crown prince was now Bernadotte, a kins- 
man of Napoleon and one of his ablest marshals. 

In May, 1812, the French Emperor appeared in Dresden, 
ready to undertake the invasion of Russia; he was the 
personal ruler of 130 French departments, and under him, 
in the relation of vassals, were seven kingdoms and thirty 
princes. In Poland, he was greeted with great enthusiasm, 
but the actual contingents supplied to his army from Polish 
sources did not amount to more than 70,000 men. Much 
of the Grand Army with which Russia was now invaded, 



430 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

678,000 in all (among the items being 480,000 foot, 100,000 
horse, and 80,000 artillerymen), were composed, to the 
proportion of nearly half, of foreign contingents. Besides 
the force taken with him to Russia, he had at his command, 
under arms, 150,000 soldiers in France, 50,000 in Italy, 300,- 
000 in Spain. The plan of campaign was to penetrate into 
the interior of the Russian Empire, leaving ample forces to 
guard communications and protect the flanks, as the French 
advanced. On the Russian side the forces were much less 
numerous, and there actually faced the 400,000 French who 
crossed the Niemen the last of June, only 147,000 Russians. 

Napoleon's plan depended for success on quick action. 
He hoped to attack and overcome the two chief Russian 
armies, before they had effected a junction. But the coun- 
try was not like the plains of central Europe; it was 
marshy and broken by forests. His commanders, espe- 
cially his brother Jerome, whose position at the head of an 
army corps was an absurd concession to the clan spirit of 
the Bonaparte family, showed dilatoriness in executing im- 
portant strategical movements. The troops also suffered in 
their discipline from the constant marauding expeditions. 
Desertions were numerous, many lagged behind, and there 
were epidemics in the invading army owing to the extreme 
heat. From these various causes the divisions lost a large 
percentage of their effective strength, so that by the middle 
of July the invaders were faced by a reduction in the origi- 
nal number of their army of 150,000 men. Napoleon won 
no decisive victory, for after every engagement the enemy 
contrived to get away, drawing the invading forces farther 
into the interior of the country. 

At Smolensk and Borodino there were battles that re- 
called the Eylau campaign, the losses were heavy on both 
sides without producing any change in the position of the 
opposing armies. On September 7, a murderous battle 
took place at Borodino near Moscow; the victory for the 
French might have been complete, if Napoleon had not 
at a critical time refused to let his guard charge, saying 
that he did not want to destroy it, 800 leagues away from 
France. The loss on both sides was frightful; of the 



NAPOLEON 431 

French 30,000 were " hors de combat," while the Russians 
counted their losses at 60,000. Among the killed on the 
French side were three generals of division, nine brigadier 
generals, and ten colonels. The Russians lost their heroic 
commander Bagration. 

The road was now opened to Moscow, but there was no 
rejoicing among the victors, for on the field of battle lay 
30,000 dead and 60,000 wounded. On the 14th, Napoleon 
entered the city, the ancient capital of Russia. Most of the 
inhabitants had fled, leaving only the lower classes and the 
occupants of the prisons, whom the governor of the city had 
released, when he heard of the victory of the French. 
While the army was halted in expectation that Alexander 
would sue for peace, a fire, started by Russian incendiaries, 
soon consumed most of the city, the houses of which were 
constructed entirely of wood. Fifteen thousand of the Rus- 
sian wounded, who had been brought on in ambulances, were 
burnt to death. After the fire had spent its course Na- 
poleon took up his abode in the Kremlin, which was only 
saved by the efforts of the Imperial Guard. He still hoped 
that terms of peace might be arranged, but Alexander con- 
tinued inflexible. 

Napoleon for a time contemplated spending the winter 
in Russia, since he recognized the practical difficulties of 
the retreat and the loss of prestige due to his withdrawal. 
Finally he decided to return by the southern provinces. 
The start west began on the 19th of November, 1812, with 
a force of 100,000 men; the way south was made imprac- 
ticable by the obstinate resistance of the Russian general 
Kutusoff, with his army of only 50,000 men. Therefore 
the route over which they had come had to be taken for 
the return. The rearguard was constantly harassed by 
the enemy, and early in November there was a battle at 
Viazma, in which the French lost from 15,000 to 18,000 
men. Snow began to fall, food was scarce, the troops 
were badly prepared to endure the wintry weather; out 
of 100,000 men there were soon only 40,000 left able to 
bear arms, and at Smolensk on the 12th of November only 
34,000 were left. 



432 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

No French army corps actually surrendered, but they 
suffered terrible losses, some of them losing half their 
effective strength. The Russians who followed the re- 
treat were also reduced from 60,000 to 30,000. At the 
Berezina, where three Russian armies were joined to dis- 
pute the passage, the French with unheard-of bravery 
rescued themselves from capture by forces three times as 
numerous, and inflicted on the Russians a loss of 14,000 
men. When the remnants of the army reached Lithuania, 
Napoleon left them there in order to make a rapid return 
to Paris and to counteract by his presence in his capital 
the bad effect of the news of the defeat in Russia. New 
armies had to be raised, for it was practically certain that a 
large part of Germany would soon be in revolt. Though 
temporarily strengthened by the various contingents left 
to protect the communications eastward, the final stage of 
the retreat from Russia, which was conducted by Murat, 
bore witness to the frightful straits and demoralization of 
the French. The sick and wounded were abandoned ; there 
were no provisions for carrying the artillery or the pon- 
toons; even the army treasure and the secret archives had 
to be left behind. Before the end of the journey west Ney, 
who commanded the rearguard, had with him no more than 
500 or 600 men, and when the Old Guard entered Konigs- 
berg, it was reduced to 1500 men, of whom only 500 were fit 
to bear arms. 

The extent of the Russian disaster may be measured by 
a few statistics ; 533,000 soldiers crossed the actual frontier* 
into Russia in the summer of 1812; 18,000 of the main 
army returned in the December following; about 130,000 
men had been made prisoners in Russia, 55,000 had deserted 
at the opening of the campaign, and there were 55,000 sur- 
vivors of the various corps that had been stationed as re- 
serves along the line outside of the Russian territory. Al- 
together 250,000 must be reckoned as having perished 
during the course of the march to Moscow and the retreat 
from that city. The disaster meant that Napoleon's schemes 
of European domination were checked and his military 
resources much diminished. It was no longer a question 



NAPOLEON 433 

of new conquests, but of turning to face the nations who 
had suffered so long from French despotic rule. 



VIII 

DEFEAT AND EXILE 

From every quarter came the word that, with the Grand 
Army destroyed, the French Caesar must now yield; his 
system, it was said, had expired on the plains of Russia. 
The hostile spirit of a subject population was seen as the 
straggling French passed through Prussia; soldiers who 
dropped out of the ranks were disarmed by the peasants, 
insulted and badly handled. The Prussians and Austrians 
made separate arrangements with the Russians, by which 
hostilities, so far as each were concerned, were to be sus- 
pended. Most of Prussia was abandoned; there were 
only 40,000 French left to oppose a revolted Ger- 
many. Even Murat, Napoleon's brother-in-law, abandoned 
the failing cause and retired suddenly to Naples, to make 
from there arrangements on his own account with the Aus- 
trian Prime Minister Metternich. 

The activity of Napoleon in such a desperate situation 
was marvelous. As to money, he collected nearly $100,000,- 
000 by using his own private treasury and seUing large 
amounts of communal estates. Every available man was 
placed under arms, including the National Guard and even 
by anticipation the conscripts of 1814 — there were already 
140,000 of the conscripts of 181 3 under training — the sailors 
in the seaports were enrolled as soldiers ; and many regi- 
ments were taken from Spain. Altogether there was col- 
lected and sent in detachments to Germany an army of 
500,000 men, mostly made up of youths less than twenty 
years of age. In order to give them discipline and stability, 
veterans were incorporated in the new regiments. 

Napoleon was not so alert as he had been ; he was suffer- 
ing from an internal disease, and sometimes for weeks he 
was incapable of effort. There were frequent attacks also 



434 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

of drowsiness, all indicative of exhaustion of his powers. 
He was more intolerant than ever of criticism, refused to 
take advice, was suspicious of his counselors, and con- 
temptuous of the ability of his commanders, an attitude 
somewhat justified by the fact that many of his best mar- 
shals were now replaced by men of second-rate ability, while 
others, who were fitted to command, were unwilling from 
jealousy to work together. Marbot declared that, " if the 
Emperor had wished to punish all those who were lacking in 
zeal, he would have been obliged to dispense with the services 
of nearly all his marshals." 

The service of supplies for the army was most defective. 
In the beginning of the year 1813, by the carelessness of the 
administrative work in this department, the Prussians got 
possession of over $6,000,000 worth of supplies, intended 
for the French armies. The consequence was that the sol- 
diers depended on pillage; even the officers lived on what 
they could get from the country. Worse than all was the 
inability of the Emperor himself to gauge the changed con- 
ditions produced by his defeat. He still behaved as if he 
were invincible, and refused to make terms with Prussia 
or to conciliate Austria by well-timed territorial conces- 
sions. To the end he would not believe that his father-in- 
law, the Emperor of Austria, would take up arms against 
him. If, at this time, he had accepted a smaller, compact 
France, confined to its natural limits, he might have avoided 
the disasters of 1813 and 1814, and yet ruled over a ter- 
ritory larger than that ever held by Louis XIV. 

In the new coalition Prussia was most anxious to re- 
store her prestige ; the uprising against the French was a 
national movement common to all classes of the population. 
Finally, even the timorous King was induced to side with 
the Russians and to issue an appeal to his people. There 
were 150,000 Prussians under arms, and in order to receive 
the help of other German states, proclamations were issued 
under Russian auspices, making generous promises of na- 
tional independence and personal liberty. So were trans- 
planted to German soil the watchwords of the French Revo- 
lution. Austria made many open professions of fidelity 



NAPOLEON 435 

to the alliance with France, but Metternich was actively 
intriguing with the smaller German courts. He even tried 
to detach Jerome of Westphalia and Murat of Naples from 
the French, and he did all in his power to urge Frederick 
William, the Prussian king, to take up arms in behalf of 
the independence of Europe. 

In the military operations of 1813, while the French were 
opposed only by the allied forces of Prussia and Russia, 
the advantage continued on the side of the French Emperor ; 
by the autumn, however, Austria and many of the German 
vassal states had joined the coalition and the defeat of Na« 
poleon was the certain outcome. As a result of a series 
of battles around Dresden, the cause of the allies was in a 
critical position; both sides had lost heavily but Napoleon 
was much chagrined that there had been no signal positive 
advantage from the constant butchery of his men. He was 
weak in cavalry, and so could not follow up his successes; 
the terrible loss of horses in Russia had not been made up. 
But at any rate he was steadily getting back the territory in 
Germany he had previously held. On the other side, the 
Russian and Prussian generals were blaming one another 
for their failures, and so making the continuance of the 
coalition problematical. 

At this point Metternich intervened after an armistice 
had been signed at Pressnitz early in July, 1813. He agreed 
to support the coalition, unless the French consented to 
give up Holland, Switzerland, Spain, the Confederation of 
the Rhine, Poland, and the larger part of Italy. Napoleon 
was indignant when Metternich laid down these terms dur- 
ing a personal interview at Dresden. " You want war," he 
said; "well, you will get it. I will meet you at Vienna. 
How many allies have you got, four, five, six, twenty ? The 
more you have the less disturbed I am. What do you 
want me to do? Disgrace myself? Never. I can die, but I 
shall never give up an inch of territory. Your sovereigns 
who are born on a throne can let themselves be beaten twenty 
times, and always return to their capital. I cannot do it, 
because I am an upstart soldier. You are not a soldier, 
and you do not know what takes place in a soldier's soul. 



436 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

I grew up on battlefields, and a man such as I am cares little 
for the lives of a million men." 

When a congress met at Prague to arrange the terms of 
peace, they proved far more favorable to France than those 
first proposed, for she was granted her natural frontiers and 
Italy in addition. It was nothing short of madness on Na- 
poleon's part to refuse such concessions; only a portion 
of them had even been dreamed of as possibilities under 
the Bourbon monarchs at the height of their ambition. 
Even from his own point of view, he might have trusted 
to the certainty of future jealousies between the central 
European powers and Russia, by which his place as the 
arbiter of Europe could be regained. Metternich, indeed, 
was as insincere in his profession on behalf of peace as Na- 
poleon himself, because the congress closed before a special 
messenger with the French counter proposals reached 
Vienna. War was resumed on August nth. 

The situation was now as follows : the French were 
about to be surrounded by three great armies; 130,000 
Austrians, 240,000 Russians, and a mixed host, composed 
of various contingents from all the allies great and small, 
under the former French marshal, Bernadotte, numbering 
180,000 men. Moreover, there were 200,000 combined Eng- 
lish and Spanish soldiers ready to cross the Pyrenees. Al- 
together 1,000,000 men were ranged in arms against the 
French Emperor. The plan as developed by Bernadotte, 
now King of Sweden, was to wear Napoleon out. A de- 
cisive battle would be avoided, but his lieutenants would be 
destroyed in detail. Moreau, the victor of Hohenlinden, 
was brought from the United States, where he had been 
living in exile, to assume the command of the allies. 

To oppose the vast allied forces. Napoleon had altogether 
no more than 550,000 men, of whom 330,000 were in Ger- 
many. At Dresden, at the end of August, an attack on 
the place was successfully resisted, and Moreau, the gen- 
eralissimo of the allies, lost his life. But Napoleon's scat- 
tered marshals fared badly, and the French army suffered 
heavy losses just at a time when no man could be spared. 
The enveloping plan was successfully carried out. Na- 



NAPOLEON 437 

poleon, at Leipzig, realized his hopeless position, for he tried 
there to arrange an armistice. With his 155,000 men he had 
against him 330,000 of the coalition. The situation was 
rendered worse because the German troops serving with the 
French deserted and joined the enemy; some, like the 
Saxons, during the very course of the terrible battle which 
raged for three days around Leipzig (October, 1813). At 
the end, 15 French generals and 25,000 men were made 
prisoners, and 350 cannon were taken; 13,000 of the French 
were massacred in the houses of Leipzig. The losses on 
both sides were frightful, for 130,000 was the sum 
total of the killed and wounded, 50,000 of whom were 
French. 

In the retreat which followed, the demoralization was so 
great that only 40,000 men reached the Rhine, yet nearly 
200,000 men' were left, by Napoleon's orders, in various 
German fortresses, most of them, too, experienced troops 
who were unable to take further part in the war when their 
country was invaded in the next year's campaign. Some 
attempt was made to arrange terms of peace now that 
everywhere the Napoleonic system had fallen to pieces. The 
French armies were driven out of Holland. In Italy alone 
Eugene Beauharnais was manfully and loyally supporting 
the Emperor's cause, but he had only 30,000 men. 

The people of France had no heart for more warfare, and 
the allies let it be known that they were fighting Napoleon 
and not France. But still the great mass of the people 
had no wish for a change of dynasty ; the war was unpopu- 
lar, but not its author. As soon as it became known that 
the cause of the allies meant a restoration of the Bourbons, 
and that France would be invaded, in order to displace 
Napoleon, the answer of the country, exhausted though it 
was and drained of its male population, was spontaneous 
and unmistakable. From the autumn of 1813, to March, 
1814, France placed in the field under Napoleon's orders, 
350,000 men. This is a marvelous record, not to mention 
the tremendous financial drain caused by the equipment of 
a fresh army. 

The new recruits were not trained, well armed, or suffi- 



438 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

ciently clothed ; there was not time to prepare them for war- 
fare, for the alHes crossed the frontiers of France in mid- 
winter (1813). There was no resistance to their progress 
until Napoleon with an army of 122,000 began to conduct 
his last extended campaign in the neighborhood of Chalons. 
By reason of a success gained near Rotheise the allies 
hoped soon to be in Paris. This over-confidence exposed 
them to a series of defeats, inflicted upon several of their 
generals in succession, by Napoleon, in a remarkable ex- 
position of his strategy that recalled the early days of his 
career in Italy. By the end of February the principal army 
of the allies retired near Troyes, afraid, though numbering 
150,000 men, to face a stand-up fight with Napoleon, who 
had only 70,000 men. Public confidence was restored in 
France, especially among the country people, indignant at 
the brutal treatment they received at the hands of the foreign 
soldiers. There was now stirred up a spirit of national 
resistance, which recalled the early days of the French 
Revolution. The peasantry arose, and inflicted severe 
losses on the marauding troops. Attempts were made in 
the spring to arrange terms of peace, but on neither side 
was there a sincere belief that the war could be brought to 
an end by mutual concessions. The Congress of Chatillon 
lasted from the 4th of February to the 19th of March; it 
was only a concession to public opinion, for the allies really 
wished for a Bourbon restoration, while Napoleon, depend- 
ing on his marriage with the daughter of Francis I of Aus- 
tria, felt certain that he could ultimately detach the Austrians 
from the coalition. At one time the allied armies were so 
discouraged, after fighting ten battles on French soil, that 
they contemplated a retreat eastward. 

Confidence was restored to them, not by their military suc- 
cesses, but by the capture of some private despatches from 
various officials to the French Emperor, which spoke in no 
uncertain terms of the discontent of the people of Paris 
and of the general depression throughout a country that 
was no longer able to bear the material exhaustion caused by 
the war. So encouraged, the allies marched to Paris ; Na- 
poleon anticipated this step, and had ordered the govern- 



NAPOLEON 439 

ment to withdraw towards the Loire, feeHng sure that in 
time he could drive his foes from French territory. Yet 
he realized to the full the bad effect of the seizure of his 
capital. 

In approaching the city the allies had only to deal with 
the marshals, not with the master hand of the Emperor, who 
first heard of their march westward three days after it had 
begun. The end soon came; there was a murderous en- 
gagement near the city, after which the arrangements for 
an armistice were made with Joseph Bonaparte, acting for 
the regent, the Empress Marie Louise. When Napoleon 
heard the news of the capitulation, he indignantly prepared 
to annul the action of his brother, and to call the people to 
arms for a hand-to-hand struggle in the streets of Paris 
with the foreign soldiery. In a few days, owing to the 
shrewd persuasions of Talleyrand, who induced Alexander 
of Russia to accept no alternative government for the coun- 
try but a Bourbon restoration, Napoleon found himself 
forced to abdicate. 

This step was not taken until after long hesitations, for 
even to the last he believed in the possibility of continuing 
hostilities. The troops were still enthusiastically loyal, and 
eagerly listened to his appeal to them to march upon Paris. 
But his marshals insisted that he must abdicate. This he 
finally did in a conditional form, reserving the rights of Na- 
poleon II, and the regency of Marie Louise. This form, 
owing to the refusal of the Czar to accept it, was finally 
altered until it read as follows : " The allied powers having 
proclaimed that the Emperor Napoleon was the sole ob- 
stacle to the restoration of peace in Europe, the Emperor 
Napoleon, loyal to his oaths, declares that he renounces in 
behalf of himself and his heirs the thrones of France and 
Italy, because there is no personal sacrifice, even to the 
extent of his life, that he is not ready to make in the inter- 
est of France." . . . 

For several days after abdicating. Napoleon remained in 
Fontainebleau practically deserted by his old comrades in 
arms, who were anxious to make peace with the new gov- 
ernment, now that Louis XVIII had been proclaimed king. 



440 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

On the night of the 12th of April he tried to poison himself, 
but the attempt failed, for the toxic drug, which he had 
always carried on his person since the retreat from Moscow, 
had lost its power. He soon recovered, however, from his 
depression, and on the 20th of April, 1814, signed the 
treaty of Fontainebleau, by which he was given the sov- 
ereignty of the island of Elba, and retained the title of 
Emperor. 

The story of the Spanish campaign, which had a potent 
influence in causing Napoleon's ruin, is marked by many 
brilliant feats of arms on the part of the French, but the 
country could no longer be held. Finally, by the successful 
advance of Wellington, the Spanish war became merged 
in the general defense of French territory, when France 
was invaded by the coalition in 1814. On Spanish soil the 
final disaster came at the battle of Vitoria, June 21, 181 3, 
where the French lost 7000 men, 180 pieces of artillery, and 
nearly all their bagage trains. One of the great mistakes of 
the Peninsular War was Soult's refusal to give battle to 
Wellington in 1812, when all the advantages in numbers 
were on his side. Later on, though he was in a far inferior 
position, he proved a most obstinate opponent, contesting 
Wellington's march north at every step with an army in- 
ferior to that under his opponent. He gave way slowly, and 
while Napoleon was fighting the allies in his last campaign 
before his abdication, Soult had been forced to withdraw 
from Bayonne, and then from Toulouse, which Wellington 
entered on the 12th of April, 1814. 

It is generally held by critics that the war in Spain was 
a most serious mistake from start to finish, and was the 
chief cause of Napoleon's ruin. Whatever share in the fail- 
ure of the imperial policy in the Peninsula may be assigned 
to the mediocre capacity of Joseph and to the confused 
strategy of the French armies due to the jealousies of the 
marshals, a large part of the responsibility falls to the ac- 
count of Napoleon himself. He left his work half done in 
the Peninsula, where he underrated the difficulties of con- 
quest. He reckoned that it would cost him but 12,000 men! 
As a matter of fact, it kept a large number of his best troops 



NAPOLEON 441 

occupied at a time when they were most needed. It was 
sheer folly to undertake the Russian campaign while Spain 
was still far from being pacified. It was also culpably 
bad tactics to allow Wellington to destroy the prestige of 
French soldiers and generals, and it was close to madness, 
in 1813, not to withdraw altogether from Spain, when every 
man was needed in France to defend its frontiers from the 
coaHtion. On the other hand, while Spain's resistance to 
French arms was a glorious record of patriotism, modern 
Spain has paid very dear for its glory. All the elements of 
reaction were interested in the downfall of the Napoleonic 
regime, and in no other country, not even Italy, did the 
restoration of the Bourbon dynasty produce such deplorable 
maladministration and civil disorder. 

The dramatic farewell of the Emperor to his troops at 
Fontainebleau makes a picturesque " mise-en-scene " for the 
close of a tragedy; it is unfortunate that the spectacular 
instincts of his genius induced him to accept the ridiculous 
role of sovereign of the island of Elba. It would have been 
more dignified for him to have refused the offer of the 
allies, and to have exchanged the role of a " roi faineant " 
for that of a private individual. Nothing illustrates the 
parvenu traits of his character more than his desire to 
preserve the shadow of the royal dignity, even if he had 
to accept bounty from the hands of a Bourbon king to 
maintain it. 

The allies fully realized the danger of his proximity in 
Elba, and unofficially there were various plans discussed 
with a view to rid themselves of their dangerous neighbor. 
Talleyrand was plotting to have him imprisoned, while the 
English urged deportation to an inaccessible island. Na- 
poleon, who was an admirable actor, accommodated him- 
self to his Lilliputian kingdom and to his mimic court, and 
adopted the pose of a modern Timoleon. " I wish to live 
henceforth," he said, " like a justice of the peace. The 
Emperor is dead, I am no longer anything. I think of noth- 
ing outside of my small island. I exist no longer for the 
world. Nothing now interests me but my family, my cot- 
tage, my cows, and my mules," His demands were not so 



442 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

modest as his words appear, for he spent nearly 2,000,000 
francs at Elba in eight months. 

He complained bitterly at being separated from his son 
and his wife, both of whom Francis kept in Vienna. There 
was no intention that they should be allowed to rejoin 
the Emperor; indeed, Marie Louise, who was of a very 
passive disposition, was content not to see her husband 
again, especially after Metternich had supplied her with an 
admirer. General Neippberg. It might have been wiser, 
certainly it would have been more humane, if the allies had 
adopted a less stringent policy of isolation. Whatever one 
may think of the sincerity of Napoleon's sentiments, he 
struck a true note, when he wrote the words '' my son has 
been taken from me, as were formerly the children of the 
vanquished, to adorn the triumph of their conqueror. One 
cannot find in modern times an example of such barbarity." 
He was not entirely dejected, for he was visited by his 
mother and his youngest sister, and though the king of 
Rome was withheld from him, an irregular heir was 
brought to Elba by the Countess Walinska, whom Na- 
poleon had met some years before in Poland. 

There were financial embarrassments, which made im- 
possible the idyllic hfe the exiled monarch had mapped 
out for himself; the income stipulated by the treaty of 
Fontainebleau was not paid. But there were more weighty 
reasons for the flight from Elba, which occurred early in 
181 5 (February 26). For some time Napoleon had been 
in secret communication with Murat, probably with a view 
to restoring the kingdom of Italy, through cooperation 
from Naples. This scheme promised more difficulties than 
a return to France, where the Bourbon restoration was not 
popular, and where the army and its generals were far from 
being satisfied with their new situation, under a king who 
favored the lifelong supporters of his cause. Plans had 
been concocted during the winter to dethrone Louis XVIII, 
in which both the Bonapartist sympathizers and some of the 
old revolutionary leaders had acted together. On hearing 
of this, Napoleon considered that the moment was opportune 
for his reappearance on French soil. With iioo of his 



NAPOLEON 443 

veterans who had acted as his guard at Elba, he reached 
southern France in safety. As the prevaiHng sentiment in 
this region was royalist, he made his way with his small 
band through the Alps to Grenoble, marching sometimes 
as much as thirty miles a day. By the peasants of the 
country he was welcomed everywhere with enthusiasm. 
From Paris orders were sent to treat him as an outlaw. 

The critical time came at Grenoble, when Napoleon's 
dramatic qualities helped him to secure the allegiance of 
his old troops. He marched impressively at the head of his 
veterans to within gunshot distance of a regiment drawn 
up in his way. " Soldiers," he said, " look well at me. 
If there is among you one soldier who wishes to kill his 
Emperor he can do it. I come to offer myself for you 
to shoot." The effect was instantaneous, and the answer 
to his appeal was the old familiar cry, " Long live the 
Emperor." 

The enthusiasm increased as he proceeded farther north. 
Nothing could arrest it or prevent the defection of the 
troops, not even the appeals for loyalty to the Bourbon king, 
addressed to their men by the marshals, who strove to outdo 
one another in their official abuse of the enterprise. Soult 
spoke of Napoleon as an adventurer; others called him a 
public enemy or a mad brigand, while Ney undertook to 
bring him to Paris in an iron cage. The army cared noth- 
ing for these criticisms or warnings; even Ney himself 
joined the movement and turned over his troops to the 
"man from Elba." By the 20th of March Napoleon was 
in Paris at the Tuileries; his marvelous progress was a 
restoration, not based on diplomacy, but made possible by 
the enthusiastic loyalty of the population, and the rank 
and file of the army. Not a gun had been fired. At 
Grenoble it had been the soldiers who had refused to obey 
their officers' command, when told to shoot. Afterwards 
there was no officer found willing to repeat the command. 

The question of establishing a new government was 
solved by inaugurating a liberal constitutional rule. Na- 
poleon seemed once again to remember that he was the 
creation of the Revolution. As an evidence of his sin- 



444 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

cerity to the tradition of the Republic, he selected as his 
chief adviser, Benjamin Constant, the old Jacobin leader, 
whose independence a few years before Napoleon had so 
much resented when Constant had led the opposition in the 
Tribunate. All these things were now forgotten. " Public 
discussions, free elections, responsible ministers, liberty of 
the press ; I want all this. I am a man of the people ! If the 
people want liberty, I am bound to give it." Under the 
new government, which was accepted by a small vote, owing 
to the number of those who stayed away from the polls, 
the elections returned a majority of liberals and republicans, 
who were not in sympathy with the restored empire. Many 
preferred to have a regency v/ith Napoleon's son or the 
Duke of Orleans. But the real hopelessness of the situa- 
tion came from the implacable attitude of the allies. At the 
Congress of Vienna, where the great powers were re- 
arranging the map of Europe amidst much jealousy and in- 
trigue, they at least agreed on one subject: the refusal to 
allow Napoleon to rule France. That devoted country 
was put under an interdict. The four powers agreed to fight 
the French Emperor with a coalition army of more than 
1,000,000 men. To oppose this immense force Davout, act- 
ing under Napoleon's directions, had in a few weeks got to- 
gether for the purpose of national defense 500,000 men to 
be ready by the end of June. Elaborate plans were made to 
protect the frontiers, and Napoleon proposed to take the 
offensive without waiting for the allies to invade the 
country. 

The nearest allied army was in Belgium, composed of 
100,000 English and Dutch under Wellington, and 150,000 
Prussians under Bliicher. Napoleon set out to oppose these 
forces with 180,000 men, intending to get between the 
English and the Prussians and beat them separately, trust- 
ing to the well-known rapidity of his movements to keep 
them from joining. Strategically the plan was a brilliant 
one, but it was not capably executed. Ney, at Quatre Bras, 
did not win a complete victory over the English because the 
engagement was begun too late. At Ligny, Napoleon at- 
tacked Blucher, who fought obstinately, though he lost 



NAPOLEON 445 

20,000 men, and was not completely crushed as had been 
planned. Instead of withdrawing in confusion, as had been 
expected, Blucher set out to join Wellington's troops. 
Grouchy, who was sent in pursuit of the Prussians, did not 
know of this operation and was under the impression that he 
was carrying out properly his instructions to pursue the 
Prussians alone, whereas the greater part of the Prussian 
army had already come in touch with Wellington, and 
Grouchy failed^ therefore, to bring his men back in time 
to Waterloo where they were needed. Wellington was 
strongly intrenched and all attempts to take his position 
failed. The battle, begun at 11 a.m on June 18, 1815, was 
not decided until five o'clock, when Bliicher effected his 
junction with the English forces. It was a most desperate 
engagement, for Napoleon realized what depended on it. 
The losses were 32,000 French and 22,000 of the allies. 

A second act of abdication was now imposed upon Na- 
poleon, who accepted it, resigning in favor of his son. He 
even offered to serve as a simple general to prevent the 
allies from capturing Paris. This was not an absolutely 
chimerical proposal, for there was an enormous mass of 
men gathered by Davout, ready to fight even after the de- 
feat of Waterloo. But the elected representatives would 
not hear of continuing the struggle. Napoleon lingered for 
several days near Paris, at Malmaison, and it was only 
when he was advised by the temporary government that 
they could not be responsible for his personal safety, that 
he traveled towards the west, where his friends were ar- 
ranging that he should be taken on an American vessel to 
the United States. The sea coast was watched by British 
cruisers, so the defeated conqueror decided to surrender 
himself to the British, intending to claim their hospitality 
and protection as a guest, not as a prisoner. Apparently, 
Napoleon rejected the plan to cross the Atlantic " incog- 
nito," for the more spectacular one of throwing himself on 
the mercy of his most bitter antagonists, because he counted 
on finding a protection under the constitutional regime of 
Great Britain, and especially on the ability of the liberal 
opposition to prevent him from being treated with excep- 



446 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

tional harshness. He realized, too, that it would be most 
dangerous for him to fall into the hands of any of the allied 
Continental Powers, who might have had him condemned to 
death by a court-martial or immured in close confinement. 
It is known that the British premier, Castlereagh, hoped that 
Napoleon would fall into the hands of Louis XVIII and be 
treated as a rebel. Therefore, when the vessel which car- 
ried him reached the English coast, there was some hesita- 
tion as to the treatment he would receive. 

Finally, at the end of July, the problem was solved by 
arranging to send the prisoner to the Island of St. Helena, 
because, on account of its isolation, there would be little 
chance of escape. The climate was healthy, close confine- 
ment would not be necessary, and Napoleon was permitted 
to take a suite of servants and friends with him. During 
his residence at Elba, the plan of a removal of the Emperor 
to St. Helena had been discussed by the Powers at the 
Congress of Vienna ; perhaps the knowledge of this fact may 
have contributed largely to induce the flight from Elba and 
the short-lived attempt to restore the empire. 

Acting under international agreement, England became 
responsible for the guardianship of Napoleon, who was 
called the prisoner of the Powers. In October, 1815, be- 
gan the captivity at St. Helena. It was naturally a trying 
experience to a man who had lately played so great a role 
in the world, and Napoleon did not have the temperament 
to endure so conspicuous a change in fortune. He in- 
stantly began a campaign to secure his release from cap- 
tivity. Reckoning on the action of public opinion in England 
working in his behalf, he left nothing undone to exaggerate 
the onerous conditions under which he lived as an exile. 
On its side, the British government, which was being 
administered by men who represented a selfish oligarchy, 
and who had to their credit a long record of inefficiency, 
corruption, and attacks on popular rights, was not likely to 
show especial consideration to a fallen antagonist at St. 
Helena. A regular system of persecution, inane and petty, 
was invented, and in applying it the governor of the island. 
Sir Hudson Lowe, a man of morose temper, whose char- 



NAPOLEON 447 

acter is admirably indicated by his name, showed himself a 
master. 

There were various plans for aiding an escape, many of 
them originating in the United States. Even an attack on 
St. Helena was discussed by Napoleon's followers, some of 
whom were on the American continent as participants in 
the Brazilian war of independence against Portugal. But 
Napoleon refused to consider any such methods of relief. 
" I could not be in America six months," he said, " without 
being attacked by the murderers, whom the royalist com- 
mittees, that returned to France in the train of the Count 
d'Artois, have hired against me. In America I see noth- 
ing but murder and oblivion, so I prefer to stay on at St. 
Helena." He saw truly that, in a life of freedom on the 
other side of the Atlantic, there would be little chance of 
posing as the victim of misfortune and maltreatment, and 
it was on the maintenance of this pose that he built his hope 
of relief from captivity, perhaps even of a return to his old 
place as ruler of France, for he counted on the expulsion of 
the Bourbons and a reaction of popular feeling in his be- 
half. A change of ministry in England also he looked 
forward to as the opening of an avenue of escape to Europe. 
He refused to take exercise because, in his walks, accord- 
ing to regulations, he had to be accompanied by an English 
officer; therefore, he blamed his bad health on the British 
government. Care was taken by publications in London to 
detail at length the sufferings of the captive. Incessant 
complaints were made of the trying climate of the island, 
the aim being to represent the banishment to St. Helena as 
nothing but a plan to get rid of Napoleon by the toxic effects 
of a tropical atmosphere. Indeed, the bad climate of St. 
Helena has become an inseparable part of the Napoleonic 
legend, yet we know that Napoleon said to members of his 
own suite, that if he had to live an exile, St. Helena was, 
after all, the best spot. 

As the years passed, nothing was changed, for the Whigs 
in England were not strong enough to get any measures 
though Parliament favorable to Napoleon, and in 1818 
the five Great Powers issued a signed statement that they 



448 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

approved of the strict treatment of the prisoner by the 
British government, and resolved that all correspondence 
with Napoleon, such as sending money or other communi- 
cations, which was not submitted to the inspection of the 
governor, must be regarded as an attack on the public 
safety and punished accordingly. 

Under the regime of no exercise imposed upon himself 
by Napoleon, his health became impaired; his manner of 
life accentuated the symptoms of a disease, cancer of the 
stomach, which had appeared long before the period of his 
exile. It was an inherited malady, for his father had died 
of it, also his eldest sister. Some rehef was secured by 
his adopting a more active life in 1819; but with the begin- 
ning of the year 1821, the progress of the disease was 
rapid ; exercise was no longer possible, and even occasional 
dictation was found to be an exhausting task. In April the 
condition of the prisoner was evidently hopeless, and after 
he was assured on this point by a surgeon of the British 
army, Napoleon dictated his testament to Montholon, one 
of his faithful companions. After his death, which took 
place on May 5, 1821, the body of the great captain was 
buried not far from Longwood, his residence. Nearly a 
generation elapsed before it was carried to its present rest- 
ing place beneath the dome of the Invahdes at Paris. 



IX 

THE NAPOLEONIC REGIME 

^During the captivity at St. Helena much attention was 
given by Napoleon to the dictation of his memoirs. These, 
however, cover only a short portion of his career and are 
confessedly apologetic in character. They are shrewdly 
constructed, often with a gross disregard of accuracy, in 
order to influence public opinion in his favor. In his conver- 
sations also he made good use of his interlocutors, to build 
up that legend of Napoleonic infallibility and good faith 
that soon found a receptive atmosphere in the prevalent 



NAPOLEON 449 

romanticism of European society. He was convinced to 
the end of his life that Bourbon rule in France could not 
last, and he looked forward to a time when his son would 
be restored. In summing up his own career, he claimed 
that his dictatorship was a necessity. " Should I be accused 
of having loved war too much, the historian will demon- 
strate that I was never the aggressor. Should I be censured 
for desiring universal empire for myself, he will show that 
that was the product of circumstances, and how my enemies 
drove me to it, step by step." 

In many passages in the same strain Napoleon curiously 
manifests his adhesion to the principles and phrases of 
the idealogues, on whom as a ruler he heaped so much 
scorn. It may be doubted whether the base metal of his 
rhetoric would have become current, if the Powers who 
participated in the Congress of Vienna had not introduced 
as their maxims of political morality the inflated and trans- 
parently insincere professions of the Holy Alliance. In- 
deed, from the beginning to the end of the Napoleonic 
period, the point of view that the coalitions against him 
were fighting in behalf of nationalism and liberty is little 
short of absurd. At almost any time France under Na- 
poleon might have arranged an alliance with England by 
offering her the bait of commercial concessions ; and even 
more unsubstantial than the Napoleonic legend is its an- 
tithesis, that the Tory oligarchy of England were spending 
hundreds of millions of pounds of their good money for the 
benefit of the peoples and states on the Continent. 

Napoleon's inferiority cannot be discovered in his lack of 
morality as a ruler, if morality be determined according to 
the standards of the aUied Powers; his chief opponents 
were trained and acted according to the principles adopted 
in the partition of Poland. His lack of scruples carried 
him farther, simply because of the immeasurable distance 
between his own genius and the commonplace character- 
istics of any of his antagonists. He built up his personal 
rule on his military skill by consistent and well-directed 
effort. France was made the instrument of his ambition; 
it was in his interest, not in the interest of the country he 



450 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

ruled, that Germany, Italy, and Spain were made dependent 
states. France would have been more solidly established, 
if, in spite of all military success abroad, her ruler had been 
satisfied with her natural frontiers. 

Under Napoleon the divorce of national from personal 
aims is seen in the changed character of the French army; 
there was no longer a general levy as in the time of the 
Revolution, for in 1800- 1804, service was regulated by lot 
and by permission to provide substitutes. Middle-class 
families as a rule took advantage of this permission, and 
there were plenty of opportunities, because old soldiers were 
anxious to re-engage for the service. War had become a 
profession. The mass of the troops were made up of chil- 
dren of the people, while the officers were mostly scions 
of well-to-do families. As time went on, owing to the ex- 
hausting character of the wars, one year's conscription was 
not enough. Sometimes there was an anticipated enrollment 
of the conscripts of the two following years. Then came 
the turn of the National Guard, made up of men from forty 
to sixty years, and of those from twenty to twenty-six who 
had been relieved from regular army service, because of 
their poor physique or because their families were de- 
pendent on their work ; these, too, were placed on the active 
Hst. 

Altogether 3,153,000 French soldiers were called upon for 
military duty from 1800 to 181 5. The losses from wounds 
and disease, apart from the fatalities on the battlefield, were 
enormous. In all, the victims of these wars are reckoned 
at 1,750,000 men. Oftentimes, those who desired to escape 
military duty had to buy themselves off as many as three 
times, and yet, even after spending $4000, they were obliged 
to take part in the campaigns of 1813 and 1814. Finally, 
owing to the scarcity of officers, requisition by force was 
resorted to. Lists were made of special families in Paris 
and the departments, whose children between the ages of 
sixteen and eighteen were constrained to prepare them- 
selves for service at the military school at St. Cyr. 

In the complicated system of the Napoleonic army, a 
place had to be made for the various national elements and 



NAPOLEON 451 

groups, who served in it. But the characteristic feature 
was the Imperial Guard. In itself it was a replica on a 
small scale of the whole force, because the various arms of 
the service all found a place within it. It grew out of the 
consular guard, first numbering 7000 men, then increased to 
50,000, until it was finally brought to 92,000 in 1813. The 
Guard was always with the Emperor in a campaign, it fought 
under his eye, and was ordinarily kept in reserve for a 
critical point of the battle. The section of the Guard which 
was closest to the Emperor, was the mounted scouts or 
" guides," who wore a green uniform, the imperial color, 
and were first commanded by his son-in-law, Eugene, and 
then by another member of the Beauharnais house, Lefebre- 
Desnouettes. Napoleon described them as a body of brave 
men who had always seen the enemies' cavalry flee before 
them. A part of this division was a corp of Mamelouks, 
recruited in the Eastern campaign, from the Coptic and 
Syrian volunteers, a picturesque body of men that still con- 
tinued to wear Oriental dress, though later on many French- 
men were added to their number. 

In the infantry divisions of the army little change was 
made ; there were grenadier regiments composed of the tall- 
est and best proportioned soldiers, and companies of slight, 
undersized men intended for the kind of work done in the 
present Italian army by the bersaglieri. Experiments with 
dismounted dragoons proved a failure. Napoleon's special 
work was the reorganization of the cavalry, an arm of the 
service which had almost altogether disappeared at the time 
of the Revolution, because large numbers of the cavalry 
officers went into exile on account of their monarchical 
sympathies. The most conspicuous branch of the cavalry 
was the hussars, who gained a reputation for dare-devil 
bravery, and whose charges with drawn sabers were the 
dramatic feature of an engagement. They were led by gen- 
erals of the type of Murat, Marbot, and Segur. 

As to the French artillery and engineers, their already 
high reputation among European armies was fully main- 
tained. In many of Napoleon's hardest contested battles, 
such as Eylau, Friedland, and Wagram, the cannonading 



452 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

of the French played a decisive part. In the later campaigns 
troops of the allied states came to be a more important ele- 
ment, and they gave the army a cosmopolitan character. 
There were German, Swiss, Italian, Spanish, Polish auxili- 
aries ; even Albanians, Greeks, and Tartars were represented 
in the enormous masses of men drawn about the Emperor, 
in his final efforts to subjugate the European continent. 

The weapons used by the army showed no technical ad- 
vance on those employed in the last half of the eighteenth 
century. The guns were flint-locks of the model of 1777, 
and the cannon were of the type employed in 1765, most of 
them pieces of 12 and 6 with mortars that had a carrying 
power of between 800 and 1900 feet. 

Owing to the years of incessant warfare, the administra- 
tion of the army was the chief care of the government. 
It was under the supervision of the Emperor himself, who 
was untiring in attending even to the most minute details. 
He made frequent inspections, kept in personal touch with 
his soldiers, and looked out for their comfort. In pre- 
paring for a campaign he knew with accuracy all matters 
relating to the equipment of his troops, the actual resources 
of the arsenals, and the amount of military stores. But the 
army in the field was expected to provide its own rations. 
" I made eight campaigns under the empire," De Brack 
said, " and always at the front ; I never saw during this 
whole time a single army commissary. I never touched a 
single ration from the army stores. The soldiers depended 
on requisitions from the inhabitants or on pillage." 

It was the Emperor's maxim that war must support war. 
When in Spain he wrote to Dijeon, the administrative di- 
rector of war in Paris : " Send back the reserves of cattle ; 
I don't want any foodstuffs, I have an abundance of every- 
thing. What I need are caissons, military transports, hats, 
and shoes ; I have never seen a cavalry in which the troops 
had as much to eat." The requisitions that had been 
found so profitable in the Italian campaign were continued 
without any regard for their effect on the conquered coun- 
try. Enormous stores of money were accumulated in this 
way. After the treaty of Tilsit the treasury of the army was 



NAPOLEON 453 

credited with about $70,000,000, and Napoleon reckoned 
that he could continue to make war for five years with- 
out increasing French taxation or asking for a fresh 
loan. 

As companions in arms Napoleon had under him a large 
number of able generals, formed just as he had been, in the 
wars of the Revolution. When the empire was consti- 
tuted many became marshals. These were selected from all 
classes of society: Davout, MacDonald, Marmont, Grouchy, 
Clarke, from the old nobility; Monery, Bernadotte, Soult, 
Mortier, Gouvion, Suchet, Brun-Junot, from the middle 
classes ; Jourdan, Massena, Augereau, Murat, Bessieres, 
Ney, Lannes, Victor, Oudinot, Lecourbe, Sebastian, Driant 
were all children of the people. It was the policy of the 
Emperor to have young men in command of his troops ; by 
1813 there were forty-one cavalry generals alone, who, 
though less than fifty years old, were on the retired list. 
The life of an officer was so strenuous that there was little 
chance of resisting for long the tremendous demands made 
on the constitution by the long marches and frequent battles. 
Advancement was speedy and the rewards were munificent ; 
many of the marshals received princely titles with pay suit- 
able to their rank. For example, Berthier's annual income 
was over $250,000. Massena, Davout, and Ney were almost 
as well provided for. After the battle of Eylau each guest 
at the Emperor's table found under his plate a looo-franc 
bill. But these personal rewards were not at all con- 
fined to those in high command. The Emperor was care- 
ful to retain the devoted loyalty of his men by words 
and acts of personal note, which by their spontaneity kept 
the army from being turned into a mere mechanical organ- 
ism. He went among the men, rewarding those who had 
distinguished themselves on the field of battle, and show- 
ing consideration to the wounded and the weary. The 
weak spot in the army was the practice of pillage. The 
soldiers were forced to it and regarded it as their right. 
Their exactions, too, were imitated on a large scale by 
the commanders and marshals. Massena made millions by 
selling trade permits during the blockade against England. 



454 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

Soult despoiled Spain of works of art and exacted large 
contributions from rich monasteries. 

In his economic policy, Napoleon followed the principles 
of the Bourbon princes; he was a thorough-going disciple 
of the mercantilist school. It was his purpose to ruin Eng- 
land; hence the severest enactments were promulgated 
against colonial products and cotton, both prime articles of 
English trade. Vessels touching English ports were ex- 
cluded ; not only were high duties imposed on coffee, sugar, 
and cocoa, but cotton fabrics were entirely prohibited. In 
1806, when the English government declared all the French 
ports from Brest to the mouth of the Elbe closed, and 
subjected neutral vessels to search, Napoleon issued the 
decree of BerHn by which the British Isles were declared 
to be blockaded. All commerce with England was pro- 
hibited and no ship which touched the English shores was 
admitted to a French port. Then came from London the 
so-called Orders in Council by which neutral ships were 
required to go to London, Malta, and other places sub- 
ject to England, to have their cargoes examined and to get 
permits to trade which had to be paid for at high rates. The 
next stage in this economic war was Napoleon's decree of 
Milan, 1807 (December 7), which declared that every ship 
which had been visited by English officials or had touched at 
an EngHsh port should lose its nationality and be regarded 
as a lawful prize. 

These drastic measures were never rigidly applied, for 
there grew up a system of exemption by special permits 
excepting certain articles. Smuggling, practised on a large 
scale, acted also as an ameliorating factor; indeed, after 
1810 colonial products were admitted into France, though 
at a high rate of duty, but the war against cotton con- 
tinued. Everywhere it was found, it was seized, and con- 
fiscated or burnt. The result of this system for France was 
worse than for England, for by her mastery of the sea the 
latter power was able to maintain both her industries and 
her credit, while France had to pay more for raw products 
and, the export of her goods being hampered, the price in 
the home market was artificially lowered. In 1802, foreign 



NAPOLEON 455 

commerce reached a sum total of 790,000,000 francs, of 
which exports accounted for 325,000,000; ten years later 
the figures were 640,000,000 and 383,000,000, respec- 
tively. 

In finance the Napoleonic regime showed no disposition 
to make innovations; only in details was the fiscal system 
altered. There was no regular budget in the modern 
sense of the term; the accounts for each year were kept 
open, and in order to make the yearly balance, the resources 
of other years were drawn upon. Apart from these financial 
irregularities, which, in the absence of any real legislative 
representative system, were not criticised or counted, the 
administration of the finances of the empire was carefully 
directed. The officials were required to do their work 
well; there was no red tape, and full value was received 
for every franc expended. Napoleon was vigilant in de- 
fending the interests of the treasury, and he treated it as his 
own patrimony. 

In no phase do his gifts as a ruler shine more conspicu- 
ously than in his refusal to increase the public debt to any 
considerable extent. At the fall of the Directory there were 
46,000,000 francs of Rentes in French government bonds; 
his government added only 17,000,000 to this amount. He 
did not trust to credit to carry on his wars, the bank- 
ruptcy of the Revolution being too fresh in the minds of 
French bondholders. We have noticed before how he 
expected the extraordinary expenses of warfare to be sup- 
plied. His forethought in raising contributions, hard as it 
was for the conquered countries, was a blessing to French 
investors. 

This care for a sound financial position sustained con- 
fidence in the Napoleonic regime, even when its master was 
engaged in the most hazardous military adventures. In the 
autumn of 1799 government five per cents, were quoted at 
seven francs. In 1800 the lowest quotation was 17.37, the 
highest 44. Each year the rise continued until it attained 
its extreme limit in May, 1808, when it marked 88.15 
francs. Then there was a gradual fall. In March, 1814, the 
quotation was 45 francs, a year later it had risen to 81.65. 



4-56 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

Napoleon gave as much and as watchful attention to the 
maintenance of public credit as he did to the details of army- 
administration. At the beginning of the Consulate he 
proceeded to restore public confidence by abolishing forced 
loans and by introducing specie payments. His only ques- 
tionable financial operation was the employment of the 
money allotted to the sinking fund, to sustain artificially, at 
critical periods, the price of government securities, in order 
to deceive public opinion as to the importance of French 
defeats. 

One of the first steps taken by Napoleon on his attain- 
ment of the supreme executive power was to make peace 
with the Church. Under the anti-religious legislation of 
the Revolution, in which most of the clergy and bishops 
had been declared outlaws, the social order had added to its 
other ills religious chaos. After the battle of Marengo in 
1800, Napoleon, in an address to the clergy of Milan, laiS 
down the following principles for his church policy : " No 
society can exist without morality, and there can be no good 
morality without religion. Religion alone gives the state 
a firm and stable support. A society without religion is 
like a vessel without a compass ; France, taught by her mis- 
fortunes, has finally opened her eyes; she has recognized 
that the Catholic religion is, as it were, an anchor, that 
alone can keep her steady, in her time of stress." 

He had no purpose, however, to allow the Church to 
secure for itself an organization, that might appeal to the 
people, apart from or contrary to the government. His 
ideal was an ecclesiastical machine which could be con- 
trolled exactly as if it were a government department. 
Under such assumptions a concordat was arranged with 
the Papacy, whose power Napoleon respected. He ordered 
his agent at Rome, who conducted the negotiations, to 
treat the Pope as if he had 200,000 men. For some time 
the discussion dragged, because Pius VH refused to accept 
certain reforms which seemed to threaten the independence 
of the hierarchy. Finally, the terms were arranged under 
which the First Consul gained his two chief points: the 
introduction of an entirely new episcopate with a reduc- 



NAPOLEON 457 

tion of dioceses and the recognition of the alienation of 
church property during the Revolution. 

Among the most important features of this instrument 
was the declaration that the CathoHc religion should be 
freely exercised in France, but that it was to conform itself 
to such police regulations as the government should 
judge necessary for public tranquillity. The new bishops 
were to be presented by the state and instituted by the Pope. 
Parish priests were to be appointed by the bishops, but the 
appointment could be vetoed by the state, and the payment 
of the bishops and priests was undertaken by the govern- 
ment. A number of the former constitutional bishops, who 
had been in schism with Rome, were appointed in the new 
hierarchy which now numbered sixty members. The in- 
troduction of the clause mentioned above relating to the 
police powers of the state was used as a ground for a whole 
series of " organic articles " by which the French Church 
was bound hand and foot to the Napoleonic system; they 
were but a revival of the Galilean principles adopted by 
Louis XIV to help him to become the supreme administrator 
of the Church in France. Rome naturally protested, for 
these articles interfered with the autocratic system of the 
Curia. Acts of the Holy See and decrees of councils were 
not legalized in France unless they were verified by the 
government. Bishops could not consult together without 
a license from the government, or retire from their dioceses 
temporarily, without a permit. In many other details episco- 
pal jurisdiction and church autonomy were interfered with. 
But all protests were in vain, and Pius VII conformed re- 
luctantly to the will of the master of Western Europe, hop- 
ing that the slow-going diplomacy of his Secretary of 
State, Consalvi, would secure future concessions. 

The first friction between the Emperor and the Pope oc- 
curred over the introduction of religious orders. None were 
authorized except certain orders for women, engaged in 
charitable or relief work. On December 2, 1804, after 
much hesitation, the Pope agreed to come to Paris to par- 
ticipate in the imperial coronation. He was treated with 
respect, but during the ceremony, when he was about to 



458 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

place the crown on Napoleon's head, the Emperor with a 
show of displeasure took it out of his hands and crowned 
himself. On one ground or another Pius was kept in France 
for several months, as Napoleon was glad to have the head 
of the Church placed in a subordinate position before the 
world as a kind of Grand Almoner to the Emperor of 
the French. 

New difficulties arose over the Pope's refusal to annul the 
marriage of Jerome Bonaparte with Miss Patterson, an 
American, who had been married to Napoleon's youngest 
brother in Baltimore in 1803 by the Roman Catholic bishop 
of that city. There were fresh grounds of alienation when, 
in 1806, Napoleon wrote to the Pope, who wished to be 
neutral, to close his ports to English vessels and to expel 
from his court English, Russians, and Swedes. " You are," 
he said, " the sovereign of Rome, but I am the Emperor ; 
my enemies should be yours." As the Pope still proclaimed 
his neutrality. Napoleon seized the Papal States, and finally 
occupied Rome in February, 1808. For fourteen months 
the Pope was kept a virtual prisoner in the Quirinal under 
a guard of honor ; he was not allowed to communicate with 
the cardinals, twenty-four of whom had been, by Napoleon's 
orders, deported. Finally, in May, 1809, a decree was is- 
sued by which the States of the Church were annexed to 
the French Empire. Rome was proclaimed a free imperial 
city, the Pope being allowed to keep only his palace and his 
estates with an income of 2,000,000 francs. 

Napoleon spoke of himself as revoking the Donation 
of Constantine ; his intention was to make of Paris the re- 
ligious head of the world with himself the director of 
its reHgion as well as of its secular affairs. Pius VII's 
reply was a bull of excommunication against the Emperor, 
who, however, was not mentioned by name in the document. 
It only spoke in general terms of those who were guilty of 
deeds of violence in the States of the Church. Napoleon 
affected to pay little attention to the Papal protest, but he 
acted promptly, first by appealing to the old principle of the 
Gallican Church, that denied the right of the Pope to ex- 
communicate a sovereign of a state. Then he had the 



NAPOLEON 459 

person of the Pope seized by the commander of the Roman 
gendarmerie. No resistance was offered, and Pius was con- 
ducted as a prisoner, in a closed carriage with drawn shades, 
to Savona on the western Riviera near Genoa. Here he 
was kept carefully guarded, but he refused all terms of set- 
tlement that insisted on his surrender of the temporal 
power. No one was allowed to see him except in the pres- 
ence of his guards. When Napoleon desired canonical 
institution for some newly appointed bishops, the Pope re- 
fused, on the ground that he was deprived of the advice 
of his cardinals. The situation was embarrassing, for there 
were, in August, 1809, twenty-seven vacant sees in France. 
Efforts were made to find a solution by calling a council at 
Paris ; but the ecclesiastics, on assembling there, declared that 
the Pope's consent was necessary. Napoleon then ordered 
the bishops to take charge of their dioceses without institu- 
tion from the Pope. But a brief came from Savona to 
Cardinal Maury, the archbishop designate of Paris, enjoin- 
ing him from administering his diocese without the Pope's 
consent. The Emperor now treated the prisoner of Savona 
with even more rigor, put in prison the clergy whom he 
suspected of bringing the Papal brief, and deprived Pius of 
all means of corresponding with the outside world. 

At this time the divorce of Napoleon from Josephine took 
place. The difficulties of the civil law were got over easily, 
although the Emperor had to violate the provisions of his 
own code, and the ecclesiastical committee of the diocese of 
Paris showed itself equally obliging, by recognizing the 
two imperial claims, that there had been an absence of con- 
sent to his religious marriage of 1804, and that there were 
defects of form in the ceremony itself. When the marriage 
with the Austrian archduchess was celebrated on April 2, 
1810, thirteen of the twenty-six cardinals present in Paris 
refused to be present at the religious ceremony. This be- 
havior excited Napoleon to an act of personal revenge, by 
which the recalcitrant princes of the Church were deprived 
of the insignia of their office, were placed under police 
supervision, and had to forego their allowance. 

In 181 1, a council was held in Paris to decide on the 



46o THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

question as to the rights of the Pope in the matter of in- 
stitution. Some of the bishops showed independence, urging 
the Emperor to restore Pius to liberty. There was a general 
agreement that Papal consent was necessary. In the mean- 
time the Pope had been cajoled or bullied into accepting a 
clause, to be added to the Concordat, that canonical insti- 
tution should be given within a fixed period, and if it were 
not given, it might be granted by the metropolitan or old- 
est bishop of the province. Just before the invasion of 
Russia the aged Pope was brought incognito from Savona 
to Fontainebleau. During the trip, though he was seri- 
ously ill, no consideration was shown him, and for many 
months after his arrival he was confined to his bed. Only 
cardinals and prelates who were partisans of Napoleon 
were allowed to see him. The defeat in Russia brought 
about a radical change; Napoleon now saw the advantage 
of arranging some terms of peace, because the harsh treat- 
ment of the venerable head of the greatest Christian com- 
munion was being used against his persecutor, both at home 
and abroad. Negotiations were resumed, and under per- 
sonal pressure from Napoleon, Pius, on condition that the 
domains of the Holy See were restored to him, made large 
concessions. He gave Napoleon the right to fill all the 
bishoprics of France and Italy, except those in the vicinity 
of Rome, and he allowed metropoHtan institution. After- 
wards, on consulting with his advisers, the Pope published 
a retraction of his consent, by which the provisions he had 
made were annulled. No attention was paid by the Emperor 
to this change of attitude except that he ordered the im- 
prisonment of the Cardinal de Pietro, who he thought had 
persuaded Pius to change his mind. 

In 1814, before the last campaign on French territory. 
Napoleon gave the Pope permission to leave Fontainebleau, 
and shortly before the final defeat he restored the Papal 
States. There were no further relations between the two, 
the restored Pope and dethroned Emperor, except that Pius 
VII, after the Hundred Days and Waterloo, magnanimously 
offered the Bonaparte family an asylum in Rome, and 
later on made representations to the English government 



NAPOLEON 461 

with a view to reduce the severity of Napoleon's captivity at 
St. Helena. 

It is customary to ascribe to Napoleon creative original- 
ity as a lawgiver. This is a part of the Napoleonic legend 
that has been upset by the industrious investigations of the 
partisans of the French Revolution, working under a fa- 
mous professor at the Sorbonne. In many ways these 
scholars have rescued from obscurity the positive achieve- 
ments of the Revolutionary statesmen, and it is now cer- 
tain that the various codes of Napoleon carry out the prin- 
ciples of procedure and justice foreshadowed in the pre- 
liminary work done by the Constituent Assembly and the 
Convention. Napoleon's own temperament is seen in the 
influence he brought to bear upon his lawyers to provide 
for rapidity in procedure and in execution of judgment, 
and in the increase of tribunals in which business men 
played an important role. 

In education the Emperor's influence was not so bene- 
ficial. He had little sympathy with any type of training 
that was not practical, and he had no sympathy at all with 
professorial free speech. Indeed, he expected the teach- 
ing profession to take its model from the Grand Army. 
There was to be little chance for personal development, 
each man marched in an appropriate rank under or- 
ders from a superior. The result of the iron-clad educa- 
tional regime is acknowledged to have been most unsatis- 
factory, and it has been one of the most brilliant and most 
arduous achievements of the Third Republic to abolish the 
Napoleonic ideals of university teaching, and to substitute 
for them a system which encourages local and personal 
freedom. The change has already justified itself, for France 
is now close to Germany as the home of erudition in 
many fields of research in which Germany for years justly 
claimed an uncontested primacy. 

The supreme position of Napoleon as a military com- 
mander has often led his admirers to affirm that he was in- 
fallible in his strategy. He encouraged this tendency at 
St. Helena, for, when he was composing his Memoirs, he 
invariably shifted the responsibility for errors in his bat- 



462 THE WORLD'S LEADING CONQUERORS 

ties to the shoulders of his lieutenants. He was an ex- 
pert in manipulating figures, and he had such a good memory 
that he could always compose a most plausible lie. For 
years people supposed that the Russian expedition failed 
because of the extreme cold, and that the defeat at Waterloo 
might have been turned into a victory if the Emperor's 
orders had been strictly carried out by Grouchy and if Ney 
had advanced more rapidly, as he was bidden to do by his 
commander-in-chief. These are misrepresentations — are 
the efforts of a man who wished to manipulate history for 
his own benefit. When, however, he was not dictating as 
an exile. Napoleon often enough expressed the truth about 
himself spontaneously. He allowed, for example, that he 
had been repeatedly defeated, and on more than one occa- 
sion he conceded to his marshals the possession of military 
talent superior to his own. One year after the Russian 
disaster he owned that the invasion had been ruined by 
blunders of his own. He was just as sweeping, too, in con- 
demning various critical phases of his policy. He con- 
demned the attack upon Spain not only as a wholesale 
blunder, but as a series of blunders in detail, and he char- 
acterized the invasion of Russia, while the Spanish War 
was unfinished, as a hopeless undertaking. Once, speak- 
ing to Talleyrand, he said, " I have made so many mistakes 
in my life that I am not ashamed of them." It was a char- 
acteristic trait of his outlook on his own career that he 
imagined himself carried on as the instrument of deeds and 
acts which he could not justify. " I am not," he once ex- 
claimed, " a man, but a thing." 

Napoleon's lack of appreciation of moral standards both 
in public and in private life is notorious, but he was no hypo- 
crite. The one pleasing side of his character was his devo- 
tion to his family. Here the clear light of his intellect 
could not reach. It is true he made grotesque mistakes in 
putting his brothers into positions for which they were 
manifestly unfitted, but this sign of weakness shows that, 
after all, Napoleon was not entirely selfish. He seems to 
have had little actual patriotism. He was not a French- 
man either by descent or by sympathy, and what he accom- 



NAPOLEON 463 

plished was done at the expense of the French people. He 
understood some of their characteristics, but his own point 
of view was so practical that there were whole fields of 
achievement signalized in the records of French genius 
that he never appreciated. On lower planes of action, how- 
ever, his driving power was immense, and the very terror 
he created by the success of his concentrated individualism 
prepared the way for that progressive acknowledgment of 
public justice and social righteousness which characterized 
the civilization of the nineteenth century. In spite of all 
his limitations, it seems impossible to point to a more mar- 
velous career in the annals of humanity. 



INDEX 



Addington, 400 

Ajaccio, 402 

Alcuin, 181-183 

Alexander of Russia, forms alli- 
ance with Napoleon, 417; 
covets Finland and Sweden, 
421 ; sympathizes with French 
defeat in Spain, 422; confers 
with Napoleon at Erfurt, 422 ; 
takes aggressive attitude to- 
ward the French, 429 

Alexander the Great, his descent, 
7; succeeds to the throne of 
Macedon, 5; educated under 
Aristotle, 5; his precocious- 
ness, 5 ; master of Macedon, 7 ; 
checks uprisings, 8, 9; de- 
clared guardian of the temple, 
9; renews Hellenic league, 9; 
begins his reign with crime, 
9-10; leaves Amphipolis, 11; 
offers thanks to Dionysus, 11 ; 
marches up the Danube, 11; 
his rumored assassination, 13 ; 
razes Thebes, 14-15; his 
placability toward Athens, 16- 
17; plans to dethrone Persia's 
king, 18; crosses the Helles- 
pont, 18; defeats Persians, 20; 
marches against Halicarnassus, 
21 ; concludes peace with the 
Persians, 25 ; is voted a crown, 
25 ; his reply to Darius, 25-26 ; 
calls himself " Great King of 
Asia," 26; lays siege to Tyre, 
27-28; founds Alexandria, 28; 
invades Syria and Egypt, 28- 
29; again defeats Persians, 
31 ; proceeds to Babylon, 31 ; 
razes Persepolis, 32 ; takes 
Drangiana, 35 ; executes Philo- 
tas and Parmenio, 36 ; captures 
Bessus, 36; founds new Alex- 
andria, 36; routs the Scyth- 
ians, 37; executes Bessus, 37; 



spears Clitus, 38; massacres 
Sogdianians, 38-39 ; marries 
Roxane, 39 ; hangs Hermolaus, 
40; motives for conquest of 
India, 40-41 ; begins Indian 
campaign, 42; fords the Hy- 
daspes, 42; defeats Indian 
army, 46; forced to cease 
Eastern conquests, 46; takes 
up organization of his empire, 
49; endeavors to amalgamate 
Greeks and Persians, 49-53 ; 
looks after economic develop- 
ment, 52; tries to legitimatize 
his rule in the East, 54-56 ; his 
death, 57; nature of his 
achievements, 58-59, 64; his 
temperament, 38; his lack of 
statesmanship, 40; as an ex- 
plorer, 46; as a general, 11, 
59-63 

Alexander's Conquest of Greece, 
4-17 

Alexander's Conquest of Persia, 
17-34 

Alexander's Empire, 48-64 

Alexander's Invasion of India, 
34-48 

Alexandria, 28, 36, 52 

Almagro, 366, 367 

Alvarado, 336, 337, 340, 362, 365 

Amiens, 402, 409 

Ancients, The, 390, 391, 392 

Andronicus, 232 

Antonius, Marcus, 125 

Ariovistus, prepares to resist 
Caesar, 89-90; suffers defeat, 
90 

Aristotle, Alexander's tutor, 5 

Assembly, The Constituent, 402 

Atahuallpa, 359-362, 364 

Athens, opposed to Macedonian 
rule, 7; aroused over Thebans' 
defeat, 16; double-faced to- 
ward Alexander, 16; sends 
embassy to Darius, 22 

Attalus, 9, 10 



465 



466 



INDEX 



Austerlitz, Napoleon's victory at, 

412 
Austrians, 380 et seq. 
Aztecs, 317-322, 338, 343, 344, 

345, 346, 347 

B 

Babylon surrenders to Alexan- 
der, 31 
Bagration, 431 

Bajesid, son of Murad, murders 
his brother, 235 ; his first mili- 
tary exploit, 235; his repres- 
sive measures, 236-238; pre- 
pares to complete siege of 
Constantinople, 238; proceeds 
against Hungarians and Rou- 
manians, 239 ; massacres Chris- 
tians, 242 ; fails before Con- 
stantinople, 243; defeated by 
Mongolo, 244; his death, 244 

Bajesid, son of Bajesid, pro- 
claimed Sultan, 272; defeats 
Djem, 272; wars on Hungary, 
Morea, and Venice, 273; ab- 
dicates the throne, 2yz 

Balboa, 310, 357 

Barras, 377, 378, 388 

Belgae, The, rise against Ro- 
mans, 91 ; retreat from Caesar, 
92 

Bernadotte, 405, 429, 436 

Bertoldo, 262 

Bessus, as successor to Darius, 
35; his stand against the 
Greeks, 36; his execution by 
Alexander, 37 

Bibulus, 80 

Bliicher, 444, 445 

Bolivia, 369 

Bonaparte, Carlo, 371 ; Joseph, 
arranges armistice at Paris, 
439; Lucien, 390, 391, 392, 414; 
Napoleon (see Napoleon) 

Borodino, 430 

Brankovitch, 260, 261 

Brutus, his opposition to Csesar- 
ism, 121 ; his share in the con- 
spiracy, 129 



Cadiz, 426 

Caesar, Julius, youth and educa- 



tion, 67; political leanings, 68; 
first public office, 68; family 
connections, 69; contests Pom- 
peius' leadership, 69-70; his 
Agrarian Law, 70; as a free- 
thinker, 71 ; elected Pontifex 
Maximus, 72 ; supports Cati- 
line, 72; opposes death pen- 
alty, 73-74; seeks alHance with 
Pompeius, 75-76; divorces his 
wife, 76; tries Clodius, 76; 
rules Spain, 77', returns to 
Rome, 78; forms alliance with 
Crassus and Pompeius, 78; 
elected magistrate, 79; arrests 
Cato, 79; submits his agrarian 
measures to the populace, 79; 
his anti-extortion law, 82; 
starts for Gaul, 85; defeats 
the Helvetii, 89; defeats Ario- 
vistus, 90; crosses the Alps, 90; 
defeats the Belgae, 94; returns 
to Rome to strengthen trium- 
virate, 95; defeats the Veneti, 
96; "butchers" the Germans, 
97; goes to Britain, 98-99; de- 
feats Vercingetorix, 102 ; ends 
Gallic campaign, 102; breaks 
with Pompeius and the Senate, 
102; outgenerals Pompeius in 
Spain, 107-108; returns to 
Italy, III; serves as Dictator, 
III; his second victory over 
Pompeius, 112-115; asserts Ro- 
man sovereignty over Egypt, 
116; is made Dictator by Cae- 
sarian Senate, 117; suppresses 
mutiny among troops, 117-118; 
defeats Scipio in Africa, 119; 
returns triumphantly to Rome, 
119; beginning autocratic re- 
gime, 120; his problems and 
plans, 120-121 ; humbles the 
Senate, 121 ; reforms the Ro- 
man Calender, 122; his benev- 
olent paternalism, 122; his 
relations with Cleopatra, 116, 
122 ; defeats and executes 
Cnasus Pompeius, 123; turns 
to Spanish provinces, 124; is 
deified as founder of the Ro- 
man Empire, 124; plans East- 
ern campaign, 125 ; is offered a 
diadem, 125; his autocratic 



INDEX 



467 



ambitions, 126 ; conspired 
against, 128; assassinated, 128- 
129; his sham republicanism, 
131 ; his generalship, 86, 131- 
133; his manipulation of mili- 
tary figures, 93 
Csesar's Alliance with Pompeius 

and Crassus, 75-84 
Csesar's Beginnings, 65-75 
Csesar's Break with Pompeius 

and the Senate, 102-119 
Csesar's Conquest of Gaul, 84- 102 
Csesar's Supremacy, Ii9-i33 
Cambaceres, 400, 402 
Capac, 352 
Capiastro, 261 

Carloman, 139 , , 

Carolingian Culture, Charles the 
Great as promoter of, 180; Al- 
cuin's share in, 181-183; its 
literary movement, 184-185 ; its 
other phases, 186-188 
Catiline, plans social revolution, 

72 
Cato, obstructs parliamentary 
proceedings, 79; defeats Cras- 
sus's plan, 81; commits sui- 
cide, 119 
Charles IV, 420 
Charles VIII, 272 
Charles, Archduke, 424, 425 
Charles the Great, acknowledged 
sole Prankish King, 139 ; offers 
peace to Desiderius, 142; be- 
sieges Pavia, 142; honored as 
Exarch of Ravenna, 143; as 
Patrician, 144, i59, 160; his 
pohcy with the Saxons, 145; 
his view of the Saxon gods, 
146 ; attacks Saxon tribes, 146- 
147; occupies Eresburg, 147; 
his first general assembly, 147; 
strengthens ecclesiastical, or- 
ganization, 147-148; his retali- 
ation at Verden, 148; his 
Saxon campaign, 149; his dras- 
tic measures of pacification, 
150; his warlike expeditions, 
151-158; his coronation as Em- 
peror of Rome, 158-165; pro- 
vides for his succession, 167- 
169; his death, 169-170; his 
dress and physical features, 
171; his marriages and prog- 



eny, 171; his education and 
intellectual interests, 172; as 
king and emperor, 172-179; as 
promoter of CaroHngian Cul- 
ture, 180, 185 ; as general, 195- 
196; his relations with the 
Church, 198-212 
Chatillon, congress of, 438 
Chlodvig, 134 
Church, The, under Charles the 

Great, 199-212 
Cicero, on Csesar's education, 
67; defeats Csesar's agrarian 
legislation, 70; frustrates so- 
cial revolution, 72-73; makes 
overtures to Pompeius, 75; on 
Csesar's administration of 
Spain, T7; refuses to leave 
aristocratic party, 78; opposes 
Crassus' legislative measures, 
81 
Clitus, 38 
Clodius, 76 
Cleopatra, 5, 116, 122 
Coalitions, Anti-Napoleonic, 388- 
389, 390, 397-398, 410, 414, 423 
Colonial System, The, 308-309 . 
Columbus, sordid motives for his 
voyages, 295-296; results of 
his voyages, 297 ; starts Ameri- 
can slave-trade, 298; deports 
Spanish criminals to the In- 
dies, 308; dies in Spain, 298; 
his opinion of the Haytians, 
306 
Committee of Public Safety, 

The, 375-376 
Constant, Benjamin, 444 
Constantine, 253, 254, 255, 258 
Consul, Napoleon as, 392; the 
provisional, 393-394; the First, 
395, 397; of State, 394, 390, 
401, 404 
Cornwallis, Lord, 400 
Corsica, its heroic struggle for 

independence, 371 
Cortez, his birth and education, 
322; his expeditions and con- 
quests, 323-326; founds Vera 
Cruz, 325; yearns for Mon- 
tezuma's capital, 326; punishes 
disloyalty, 327; starts for Az- 
tec capital, 327, 330; at the 
home of Montezuma, 331-3345 



468 



INDEX 



his extreme cruelty, 330 et 
seq.; imprisons Spanish en- 
voys, 334-335; condemns Nar- 
vaez and his men, 335; wars 

■ on Vera Cruz Indians, 338; 
executes Montezuma, 338; his 
perilous escape from the Az- 
tecs, 339; plans Mexican siege, 
341 ; progress of the expedi- 
tion, 341-348; takes Mexico, 
348; plans a new city, 348; 
goes to Honduras, 349; re- 
turns to Mexico, 349; his last 
years, 349-350 

Cromwell, 137 

Cuba, its discovery and occupa- 
tion, 307; barbarities practised 
on its inhabitants, 307-308 

Curio, Caesar's agent at Rome, 
104-10S 

Cuzco, taken by the Spaniards, 
366 



142; surrenders to Charles the 
Great, 143 

Dionysus, Alexander's thank of- 
fering to, II 

Directory, The, 379, 380, 382, 
383, 384, 388, 389, 390, 392, 
393, 394, 455 



Eastern Emperor, The, 230 
Economic conditions in Charles 

the Great's empire, 189-198 
Egypt, invaded by Alexander the 

Great, 28-29 
Empire, Alexander's, 48-64 ; 

Charles', 172-179; Napoleon's, 

407-418 ; Ottoman, 285-292 
Erfurt, 422 
Euphrates, The, Alexander 

crosses, 29 
Eylau, 416, 425 



Dagobert, 135 

Darius, resists Alexander in 
Syria, 22; outgeneraled by 
Alexander, 24; recrosses the 
Euphrates, 24; his humilia- 
tion, 25 ; gathers another army, 
26-27, 29; again defeated by 
Alexander, 31 ; escapes to 
Media, 31 ; tries to make an- 
other stand, 33; his assassina- 
tion, 34 

Dauchan, 221 

Davout, 444, 445 

Demosthenes, leads patriotic 
Athenians, 7; delivers com- 
memoration speech, 8; thanks 
gods for deliverance at ^Egae, 
8; his relations with Attalus, 
9; is given means to bribe 
Greek states, 12; aids Thebes' 
struggle for restoring inde- 
pendence, 13 ; involved in Har- 
palus' scandal, 57 

Desaix, 398, 400 

Desiderius, King of the Lom- 
bards, offers his daughter's 
hand to Charles the Great, 139; 
before the walls of Rome, 140; 
prepares against Northern in- 
vasion, 141; flees to Pavia, 



Ferdinand, 294, 420 

Five Hundred, The Council of, 

377 

Fontainebleau, Napoleon's fare- 
well at, 441 

Fouche, 423 

Franks, The, 135, 136 

Frederick HI, 253 

Frederick the Great, 4i4» 4^8 

Free States, The, the final strug- 
gle of, 4 



Gaul, Caesar's conquest of, 84- 
102 ; nature of the country, 85 

Giustiniano, 257 

Goethe, 422 

Gold Fever, The, in Hayti, 305- 
306 

Granada, end of, 294, 295 

Greek Empire, feebleness of the 
revived, 223-224 

Greek invasion of Persia, 
averted, 12 

Greek and Persian elements, 
amalgamation of, attempted 
by Alexander, 49-50 

Greek people, influenced by Per- 
sian invasion, 3-4 

Gregory the Great, 136 



INDEX 



469 



H 

Halicarnassus, taken by Alexan- 
der, 21 

Harpalus, seeks to stir up revolt, 
49; his fate in Athens, 57 

Hayti, first European settlement 
in New World, 300; civiliza- 
tion of its natives, 300-302; its 
European colonization, 303 ; its 
economic exploitation, 303-304 ; 
discovery of gold in, 304 

Heine, on Napoleon's power, 415 

Hellenic Confederation, votes 
Alexander a crown, 25 

Helvetii, defeated by Caesar, 89 

Hermolaus, hanged by Alexan- 
der, 40 

Hundred, The Five, 390, 391, 
392 

Hunyadi, 249, 250, 251 



Illyrian campaign, The, 13 
Incas, The, their state of civiliza- 
tion, 350-351; rise of their 
domination, 351-352; extent of 
their conquests, 353; their 
theological ideas, 353-355 ; 
their government, 355-356; as 
warriors, 357; capture and 
execution of their leader, 364 
India, invasion of, 35-38, 40-41, 
42, 46 



Jacobins, The, 401 

Jena, 415 

Jerome of Westphalia, 435 

John the Fearless, 239 

Joseph, King of Naples, 421, 426 

Josephine, 422 

Jourdon, 427 



K 



Kutusoff, 431 



Lafayette, opposes " arbitrary 

government," 403 
Lala Schahin, 232 
Lannes, 417, 425 
Las Casas, 299, 303-304, 306- 

308, 310, 349 



Legion of Honor, Napoleon's, 

404 
Leipzig, 437 
Letitia, Maria, 371, 414 
Louis XIV, 434 
Louis XVIII, proclaimed King 

of France, 439; plans for the 

dethronement of, 442 



M 

Macedon, Kingdom of, 3, 7 

Macedonia, 10 

Macedonians, 10 

Manuel II, 236, 237, 239, 243, 
244, 245, 247 

Marbot, on the Prussian cam- 
paign, 416; on Napoleon's 
marshals, 434 

Marcellus, wants Caesar declared 
enemy of the people, 106 

Marseilles, 375 

Massena, 425, 426-427 

Memnon, 21-22 

Memoirs, Napoleon's, 448-449 

Metternich, 433, 435, 436 

Mexico, its great antiquity, 311 ; 
its early history, 311-322 ; taken 
by Cortez, 341-348; plans for 
the reconstruction of, 348 

Mohammed II, his ambitions, 
253; prepares to besiege Con- 
stantinople, 254-255; his strat- 
egy, 256-257; sacks Constan- 
tinople, 258; inaugurates Mo- 
hammedan rule, 259; attacks 
Belgrade, 260-261 ; conquers 
Servia and Bosnia, 262 ; takes 
Athens, 263; ravages Morea, 
263; humiliates Venice, 264; 
enters Italy, 265; defeated at 
Croia, 266; his aggressive 
policy, 266; his fleet in the 
Greek islands, 267; abandons 
aggression on Wallachia, 269; 
defeated by Stephen of Mol- 
davia, 270-271 ; end of his 
reign, 271 ; extent of his con- 
quests, 271-272 

"Moniteur," The, 408 

Montezuma II, 316, 324, 325, 326, 
331, 332, 333, 336, 337, 338 

Morea, ravaged by Turks, 263 

Moreau, 405, 436 



470 



INDEX 



Moscow, Napoleon's retreat 
from, 431-432 

Murad I, his personal qualities, 
220; his measures and con- 
quests, 220-234; his assassina- 
tion, 234 

Murad II, succeeds Mohammed, 
246 ; besieges Constantinople, 
246; invades Morea, 247; 
leads army in person, 248; 
defeats Hunyadi, 250; at- 
tempts to repress Albanian re- 
bellion, 252; his success in the 
Morea, 252; his death, 252 

Murat, 417, 423, 432, 433, 435, 442 

N 

Napoleon, his birth and ancestry, 
371 ; his childhood and educa- 
tion, Z72-2,7Z ; his early revolu- 
tionary sympathies, Z7y2>7A 5 
arrives in France, 374; shoves 
Jacobin leanings, 374; made 
brigadier-general, 375 ; at- 
tracted by Robespierres's re- 
gime, 375 ; commended by 
Committee of Public Safety, 
376; involved in ruin of 
Robespierre's party, 376 ; 
stricken from list of French 
generals, 377; appointed sec- 
ond commander of Convention, 
377; made commander-in-chief 
of the army, 378; prepares to 
attack Austrian provinces, 379; 
his plan of operations, 380; 
defeats Austrians and their 
allies, 380-381 ; asserts French 
sovereignty over Naples and 
Tuscany, 382 ; accounts for 
Austrians' defeat, 382; eulo- 
gized by Talleyrand, 383 ; calls 
Directory a makeshift, 384; his 
Egyptian Campaign, 384-389 ; 
his share in Sieyes' scheme, 
390; receives command of 
Paris troops, 391; ejected 
from Hall of Five Hundred, 
391 ; appointed Consul, 392 ; 
seeks role of a Washington, 
394; would be master of 
France, 394; projects sham 
constitution, 394-396; his ad- 
ministrative activities, 396-397 ; 



wars on coalition, 397-400; 
hastens to resume reins of 
government, 400; escapes a 
plot, 401 ; erects revolution- 
ary tribunal, 401 ; re-elected 
First Consul, 402; reconstructs 
the provisional government, 
402-404; departs from Repub- 
licanism, 404; seeks revenge, 
405-407; inaugurates the Em- 
pire, 407; becomes Emperor 
of France, 407; plans to ex- 
tend his dominions, 408-409; 
renews hostilities with Eng- 
land, 410; forces Austrians to 
capitulate, 411 ; defeats allies 
at Austerlitz, 412; forms Con- 
federation of the Rhine, 413; 
his birthday made a national 
holiday, 414; prepares for new 
campaign, 415; enters Berlin, 
415-416; defeats Prussians, 
416; held in check at Eylau, 
417; breaks up Fourth Coali- 
tion, 417; forms alliance with 
Alexander of Russia, 417; 
plans invasion of British Asia, 
419-420 ; annexes Spain, 420 ; 
embarks on Asiatic campaign, 
420 ; gets abdication from Fer- 
dinand and Charles IV, 420; 
makes his brother king of 
Spain, 421 ; modifies plan of 
aggressive campaign, 422 ; con- 
fers with Alexander at Er- 
furt, 422; hastens back to 
Spain to restore Joseph to the 
throne, 423 ; urges Alexander 
to help against Fifth Coalition, 
424 ; enters on new Austrian 
campaign, 424; wins dubious 
victory at Wagram, 425; 
threatens to annex Iberian 
kingdom, 426; provoked by 
bad turn of affairs, 427 ; in- 
trigues with the Czar of Rus- 
sia, 428-429; invades Russia, 
429-430 ; fights inconclusive 
battles at Smolensk and Boro- 
dino, 430 ; enters Moscow, 
431 ; retreats westward, 431- 
432; tries to rehabilitate his 
broken army, 433; grows sick 
and suspicious, 432-434; beaten 



INDEX 



471 



at Leipzig, 437; forced to ab- 
dicate, 439; tries to commit 
suicide, 440; takes farewell of 
his troops, 441 ; exiled at Elba, 
442; plans to regain control, 
442 ; returns to Paris, 443 ; ap- 
peals to his veteran troops, 
443; makes liberal profes- 
sions, 444; prepares for new 
war with allies, 444; attacks 
Bliicher, 445; defeated at 
Waterloo, 445 ; again forced to 
abdicate, 445; confined at St. 
Helena, 446; dies of cancer, 
448; his "Memoirs," 448-449; 
his ambitions and genius, 449" 
453; his military blunders, 
440-441 ; his economic, finan- 
cial, and religious policies, 
454-460; as a law-giver, 461; 
as a general, 463; his moral 
standards, 463 

Napoleonic Regime, The, 448-403 

Narvaez, 334, 335 

Ney, 417 

O 

Osman, begins rule as inde- 
pendent prince, 214; converted 
to Islamism, 215; reason for 
his leadership, 217 ; his plan of 
conquest, 217; his death, 218 
Ottomans, The, their chief char- 
acteristics, 280; their changed 
traditions, 280-281; their re- 
ligious absolutism, 281-282 ; 
position of their women, 282; 
their army, 283; their rule 
over subject peoples, 283-287; 
economic effects of their rule, 
284-285; beginnings of their 
conquests, 285-287; their rule 
over African provinces, 287; 
their Algerian corsairs, 288; 
eclipse of their power, 288- 
289; their conflict with the 
Christian Armada, 289-291 ; 
dechne of their empire, 292; 

Ourach, 222 

Ourkhan, 218-219 



Pachacutic, 352 

Paoli, Pasquale, 37i, 373» 374 



Parmenio, executed by Alex- 
ander, 35 

Persians, The, awakened to dan- 
ger of Greek invasion, 12; 
their incompetence in aggres- 
sive warfare, 18-19 

Persian invasion, influence of, 
on Greek people, 3-4 

Peter of Cyprus, 229, 230 

Peru, the Incas of, 350-370 

Philip of Macedon, beginning o£ 
his historic career, 4; his law- 
less and amorous nature, 5; 
performs duty toward Alexan- 
der, 5; understanding entered 
into with Alexander, 5; death 
of, as master of Greece, 4; 
his assassination, 6; as de- 
stroyer of Greek liberties, 7 

Philotas, executed by Alexander, 

35 

Pippin the Hunchback, 167 

Pippin, his characteristics, 135; 
his policy, 136; end of his 
reign, 137; his march on the 
Saxon§, 145; his diplomacy, 
138, 161 

Pitt, William, 400 

Pizarro, his birth, education, and 
characteristics, 357-358; plans 
to acquire Bisu, 357-359; starts 
for Caxamalca, 359; sets trap 
for Atahuallpa, 360-361; mas- 
sacres Peruvians and captures 
their chief, 362; reduces cap- 
tives to slavery, 363; receives 
enormous ransom from Peru- 
vians, 363; executes Ata- 
huallpa, 364; his pact with 
Alvarado, 365; plans new 
Peruvian capital, 365; takes 
Cuzco, 366 ; his administration, 
368; his assassination, 368 
Pompeius the Great, Caesar 
anxious to measure strength 
with, 69-70; returns from 
Eastern campaign, 75; forms 
triumvirate with Caesar and 
Crassus, 78; marries Caesar's 
daughter, 80; breaks with Cae- 
sar, 102; is outgeneraled by 
Caesar in Spain, 107-110; his 
final defeat and assassination, 
115 



472 



INDEX 



Pompeius, Cnseus, seeks to 
avenge father's murder, 122; 
his defeat, capture, and execu- 
tion, 123 

Pope Hadrian, 160 

Pope Leo III, 160 

Pope Stephen, 136, 140, I59 

Pope Sylvester, 137 

Porus, King, defeated and taken 
by Alexander, 46 

Pressburg, 412-413, 4i4 



Republic of Plato, The, 227 
Reign of Terror, The, 374 
Rhine, Confederation of the, 413 
Robespierre, Napoleon on good 

terms with, 374; commends 

Napoleon, 375 
Russia invaded by Napoleon, 

429-432 

S 

Scanderberg, 251, 252, 260, 261, 

266, 267 
Scipio, Caesar would force to 

g've battle, 119; defeated by 

Caesar, 119; perishes at sea, 

119 
Scythians, routed by Alexander, 

37 , , , 

Selim, opposes his fathers au- 
thority, 273; forces father to 
abdicate, 2"]^ ', murders claim- 
ants of throne, 2']Z\ organizes 
massacre of Schismatics, 274; 
subjugates Eg>'pt, 275; his 
death, 275 

Sieyes, Director, 390, 392, 394 

Sigismund of Hungary, 236-240, 
241-248 

Slave Trade, American, started 
by Columbus, 298-299 

Smolensk, 430 

Sogdinians, massacred by Alex- 
ander, 38-39 

Souliman, succeeds his father, 
275 ; his aggressions, 276-278 ; 
end of his reign, 279-280 

" Souper de Beaucaire," Na- 
poleon's, 374 

Spain, its phenomenal rise, 293- 
295 ; its motive in encouraging 
Columbus, 295; recalls Cortez, 



349 ; advantages of its colonial 
policy, 369-370; mistreated by 
Napoleon, 419; annexed by 
the French, 420; revolutionary 
movement in, 420; revolts 
against French domination, 
421 

Stephen of Moldavia, defeats 
Mohammed H, 269-271 

Sulla, ']2 

Syria, invaded by Alexander, 28 

St. Helena, Napoleon at, 446- 
448 

T 

Talleyrand, eulogizes Napoleon, 
383; at Erfurt, 422; his al- 
leged plot, 423 ; helps to make 
Napoleon abdicate, 439; sug- 
gests Napoleon's imprison- 
ment at Elba, 441 

Terrorists, The, 374 

Thebes, aided by Demosthenes, 
13 ; taken by Macedonians, 14 ; 
razed by Alexander, 15; its 
association with Greek heroic 
age, 15; the consternation 
caused by its fate, 15-16 

Theodoric, the Ostrogoth, 134, 
159 

Tilsit, 417, 418-419 

Timur, 244 

Toltecs, The, 312-314 

Toulon, 375, Z71 

Trafalgar, 411 

Treaty of Amiens, 409 
Luneville, 399 
Pressburg, 412-414 
Tilsit, 417 

Tribunate, The, 396, 400, 401, 
402, 403, 404, 405, 407, 444 

Tupac, 352 

Turanians, in the New World, 
290; their civilization, 296 

Tyre, siege of, 27 



Vaca de Castro, 368 
V-elasquez, 327, 328, 334 
Venice, defeated by Mohammed 

n, 264; chief rival of Ottoman 

empire, 289-290 
Vera Cruz, founded by Cortez, 

325, 338, 339 



INDEX 



473 



Vercingetorix, executed by Cae- 
sar, 120 
Viazma, 431 

Vienna, Congress of, 444, 449 
Vlad, 267-268, 269-271 

W 

Wagram, 425 

Washington, George, Napoleon 

in the role of a, 394; mourned 

in Paris, 397 



Wallachia, 269 
Waterloo, 445 
Wellington, at Torres Vedras, 

426; invades Spain, 427; heads 

Dutch and English armies, 

445 ; defeats the French at 

Waterloo, 445 
West Indian Islands, The, their 

inhabitants, 299-300 
Witikind, organizes revolt 

against Charles the Great, 148; 

accepts Christianity, 149 



THE WORLD'S LEADERS 

A NEW SERIES OF BIOGRAPHIES 

Edited by W. P. Trent 

The notable interest in biography has generally been met 
by two widely different classes of publication— the biographi- 
cal dictionaries, and volumes devoted each to an individual. 
There seems room for a series devoted to individuals in whose 
lives everybody is interested, and systematically arranged. 

This new series is to be called "The World's Leaders." 
It will consist of large i2mo volumes, each containing from 
five to a dozen biographies, classified by volumes according 
to the pursuits of the men treated. It will include only those 
whose names are known to virtually all reading people, and 
will be written by the most capable authors who can be inter- 
ested in the task. Pains will be taken to make the volumes 
interesting and inspiring, no less than reliable and instructive. 

The books are designed not so much to recount histor^% as 
to portray the men who, in their respective departments, 
have made history. It is intended that the contents shall be 
biographies rather than treatises on the various fields of ac- 
tivity in which their subjects gained eminence, or than 
expositions, criticisms or philosophies; and yet it is realized 
that the best biography must contain something of each of 
the others. 

It is not intended to put the books on a plane that will 
make much in them unattractive to any boy of fifteen who 
would care to read biography. 

Each, with portraits. Large i2mo. $1.75 net. 

H. W. Boynton's The World's Leading Poets.— Homer, Virgil, 
Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, Goethe. 

G. B. Rose's The World's Leading Painters.- Leonardo da 

Vinci, Raphael, Titian, Rubens, Velasquez, Rembrandt. 

W. L. Bevan's The World's Leading Conquerors.— Alexander, 

Caesar, Charles the Great, The Ottoman Conquerors of 
Europe, Cortes and Pizarro, Napoleon. 

Other Volumes in Preparation 
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 

34 West 330 Street NEW YORK 

Postage on net books 8% additional 



LEADING AMERICANS 

Edited by W. P. Trent, and generally confined to those no 

longer liWng. Large i2mo. With portraits. 

Each $1 75. by mail $1.90. 

R- M. JOHNSTON'S LEADING AMERICAN SOLDIERS 

By the Author of " Napoleon," etc. 
Washington. Greene. Taylor. Scott, Andrew Jackson, Grant, 
Sherman, Sheridan, McClellan, Meade, Lee, "Stonewall" 
Jackson, Joseph E. Johnston. 

" \'ery interesting . . . much sound originality of treatment, and the 
style is very dear." — SpringfUld Republican. 

JOHN ERSKINE'S LEADING AMERICAN NOVEUSTS 

Charles Brockden Brown, Cooper, Simms, Hawthorne, 
Mrs. Stowe, and Bret Harte. 

•• He makes his study of these novelists all the more striking because 
of their contrasts of style and their varied purpose. . • . Well worth 
any amount of time we may care to spend upon them." — Boston Tran- 
script. 

W. M. PAYNE'S LEADING AMERICAN ESSAYISTS 

A General Introduction dealing with essay writing in Amer- 
ica, and biographies of Irving, Emerson, Thoreau, and George 
William Curtis. 

" It is necessary to know only the name of the author of this work 
to be assured of its literary excellence." — Literary Digest. 

LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 

Edited by President David Starr Jordan. 

CorxT RrxFOED and Josiah Wiixard Gibbs, by EL E. Slosson; 
Alfxaxdeh Wilsox and Acdcbox. by Witmer Stone; Sillimax, by 
Daniel C. Gilman; Joseph Hexry, by Simon Newcomb; Louis Agassiz 
and Spexceh Fcllebtox Baird, by Charles F. Holder; Jeffries Wymax, 
by B. G. Wilder; Asa Grat, by John M. Coulter; James Dwight Daxa, 
by William North Rice; Marsh, by Geo. Bird Grinnell; Edward 
Drixker Cope, by Marcus Benjamin; Simox Newcomb, by Marcus 
Benjamin; George Browx Goode, by D. S. Jordan; Hexry Augustus 
RowiAXD. by Ira Remsen; William Keith Brooks, by E. A. Andrews. 

GEORGE ILES'S LEADING AMERICAN INVENTORS 

By the author of " Inventors at Work." etc. Coloxel Johx Stevexs 
(screw-propeller, etc.); his son, Robert (T-rail. etc); Fultox; Erics- 
sox; Whitxey; Blaxchard (lathe); McCormick; Howe; Goodyear; 
Morse; Tilghmax (paper from wood and sand blast); Sholes (type- 
writer); and Mergexthaler (linotype). 

Other Volumes covering L.\wyers, Poets, Statesmen, 
Editors, Explorers, etc. , arranged for. Leaflet on application. 

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS (ix'ia) NEW YORK 



By R. M. JOHNSTON 

Assistant Professor in Harvard University 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

A Short History. i2mo. 278 pp., with special bibHographies 
following each chapter, and index. $1.25 net; by mail, ^1.37. 

"An almost ideal book of its kind and within its scope ... a clear 
idea of the development and of the really significant men of events of that 
cardinal epoch in the history of France and Europe is conveyed to readers, 
many of whom will have been bewildered by the anecdotal falness or the 
rhetorical romancing of Professor Johnston's most conspicuoos predccessora.*' 
—Churehrnan. 

"Deserves to take rank as a little classic and as sach to be given a place 
in all libraries. Not only is this admirably written, btit it singles oat the 



persons and events best worth understanding, viewing the great soctal up- 
heaval from a long perspective." — San Francisco ChronicU. 

NAPOLEON 

A Short Biography. i2mo. 248 pp. , with special bibliographies 
following each chapter, and index. $1.25 net ; by mail, $1.37. 

"Scholarly, readable, and acute." — Nation. 

"It is difficult to speak with moderation of a work so pleasant to read, so 
lucid, so skillful."— ^<7J^« Transcript. 

'*A quite admirable Xtodk..""— London Spectator. 

"The style is clear, concise and readable.**— Z^wwiiw AtJuntnm. 

"In a small volume of less than 250 pages he gives us a valuable key to 
the history of the European Continent from the Reign of Terror to the 
present (^^j."— London Morning Post. 

LEADING AMERICAN SOLDIERS 

Biographies of Washington, Greene. Taylor, Sccr^ Andrew 
Jackson, Grant Sherman, Sheridan, McClellan, Meade. Lee, 
♦'Stonewall" Jackson. Joseph E. Johnston, With portraits, I vol 
$1,75 net ; by mail $1,88, 

In the * -Leading Americans " series. Prospectus of the series 
on request, 

"Performs a real service in preserving the essentials.** — Revirm of 
Reviews. 

"Very interesting, . . . Much sound wiginality of tr e a tm ent, and 
the style is clear.** — Sfringfield Refuilican. 

#*# If the reader will send his name and address, the publishers will send, from 
time to time, information regarding th^ new books. 

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS KKW YORK 



NEW BOOKS ON THE LIVING ISSUES BY LIVING 
MEN AND WOMEN 

The Home University Library 

Cloth Bound 50c per volume net ; by mail 56c. 

Points about THE HOME UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 

Every volume is absolutely new, and specially written for 
the Library. There are no reprints. 

Every volume is sold separately. Each has illustrations 
where needed, and contains a Bibliography as an aid to 
further study. 

Every volume is written by a recognized authority on its 
subject, and the Library is published under the direction of 
four eminent Anglo-Saxon scholars — Gilbert Murray, of 
Oxford; H. A. L. Fisher, of Oxford; J. Arthur Thomson, 
of Aberdeen; and Prof. W. T. Brewster, of Columbia. 

Every subject is of living and permanent interest. These 
books tell whatever is most important and interesting about 
their subjects. 

Each volume is complete and independent; but the series 
has been carefully planned as a whole to form a compre- 
hensive library of modern knowledge covering the chief sub- 
jects in History and Geography, Literature and Art, Science, 
Social Science, Philosophy, and Religion. An order for any 
volume will insure receiving announcements of future issues. 
SOME COMMENTS ON THE SERIES AS A WHOLE: 

"Excellent." — The Outlook. "Exceedingly worth while." — The Nation. 

"The excellence of these books." — The Dial. 

"So large a proportion with marked individuality." — New York Sun. 

VOLUMES ON HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY NOW READY 

Rome By W. Warde Fowler. Canada By A. G. Bradley. 

The History of England The French Revolution 

By A. F. Pollard. By Hilaire Belloc. 

The Opening Up of Africa AShortHistoryofWar&Peace 

By H. H. Johnston. By G. H. Ferris. 

The Civilization of China The Irish Nationality 

By H. A. Giles. By Alice S. Green. 

History of Our Time (1885-1911) The Papacy & Modern Times 

By G. P. GoocH. By W. Barry. 

The Colonial Period Medieval Europe 

By Chas. M. Andrews. By H. W. C. Davis. 

Reconstruction & Union (1865- Warfare in Britaun 

By L. P. Ha WORTH. 1912) By Hilaire Belloc. 

The Civil War Modern Geography 

By F. L. Paxson. By Marian I. Newbigin. 

The Dawn of History Polar Exploration 

By J. L. Myres. ^ By W. S. Bruce. 

Peoples and Problems of India Master Msuiners 

By T. W. HoLDERNEss. By John R. Spears. 

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 

34 WEST 33rd ST. (vill'12) NEW YORK 



THE HOME BOOK OF VERSE 

American and English (1580-1912) 
Compiled by Burton E. Stevenson. Collects the best short 
poetry of the English language— not only the poetry every- 
body says is good, but also the verses that everybody 
reads. ^ (3742 pages; India paper, i vol., 8vo, complete au- 
thor, title and first line indices, $7.50 net ; carriage 40 cents 
extra.) 

The most comprehensive and r'epresentative collection of 
American and English poetry ever published, including 
3,120 unabridged poems from some 1,100 authors. 

It brings together in one volume the best short poetry 
of the English language from the time of Spencer, with 
especial attention to American verse. 

The copyright deadline has been passed, and some three 
hundred recent authors are included, very few of whom 
appear in any other general anthology, such as Lionel 
Johnson, Noyes, Housman, Mrs. Meynell, Yeats, Dobson, 
Lang, Watson, Wilde, Francis Thompson, Gilder, Le 
Gallienne, Van Dyke, Woodberry, Riley, etc., etc. 
_ The poems as arranged by subject, and the classifica- 
tion is unusually close and searching. Some of the most 
comprehensive sections are: Children's rhymes (300 
pages); love poems (800 pages); nature poetry (400 
pages); humorous verse (500 pages); patriotic and histor- 
ical poems (600 pages); reflective and descriptive poetry 
(400 pages). No other collection contains so many popu- 
lar favorites and fugitive verses. 

DELIGHTFUL POCKET ANTHOLOGIES 

The following books are uniform, with full gilt flexible covers and 
pictured cover linings. i6mo. Each, cloth, $1.50; leather, $2.50. 

THE GARLAND OF CHILDHOOD 



A little book for all lovers of 
children. Compiled by Percy 
Withers. 

THE VISTA or ENGUSH VERSE 

Compiled by Henry S. Pan- 
coast. From. Spencer to Kip- 
ling. 

LETTERS THAT LIVE 

Compiled by Laura E. Lock- 



wood and Amy R. 
150 letters. 



Kelly. Some 



POEMS FOR TRAVELLERS 

(About "The Continent.") 
Compiled by Miss Mary R. J. 
DuBois. 



THE OPEN ROAD 

A little book for wayfarers. 
Compiled by E. V. Lucas. 

THE FRIENDLY TOWN 

A little book for the urbane, 
compiled by E. V. Lucas. 

THE POETIC OLD-WORLD 

Compiled by Miss L. H. 
Humphrey. Covers Europe, in- 
cluding Spain, Belgium and the 
British Isles. 

THE POETIC NEW- WORLD 

Compiled by Miss Humphrey. 



HENRY HOLT AND 

34 WEST 33rd street 



COMPANY 

NEW YORK 



Bmerican public problems Series 

Edited by Ralph Curtis Ringwalt 

Chinese Immigration 

By Mary Roberts Coolidge, Formerly Associate Professor 
of Sociology in Stanford University. 531 pp., $1.75 net; by 
mail, $1.90. {Just issued.) 

Presents the most comprehensive record of the Chinaman in 
the United States that has yet been attempted. 

"Scholarly. Covers every important phase, economic, social, and 

Eolitical, of the Chinese question in America down to the San Francisco 
re in igo6."—A^ew York Sun. 

" Statesmanlike. Of intense intQTest."— Hartford Courant. 
"A remarkably thorough historical study. Timely and useful. En- 
hanced by the abundant array of documentary facts and evidence." — 
Chicago Record- Herald. 

Immigration: And Its Effects Upon the United 
States 

By Prescott F. Hall, A.B., LL.B, Secretary of the Immi- 
gration Restriction League. 393 pp. $1.50 net; by mail, $1.65. 

" Should prove interesting; to everj-one. Very readable, forceful and 
convincing. Mr. Hall considers every possible phase of this great 
question and does it in a masterly way that shows not only that he 
thoroughly understands it, but that he is deeply interested in it and has 
studied everything bearing upon il."— Boston Transcript. 

"A readable work containing a vast amount of valuable information. 
Especially to be commended is the discussion of the racial effects. As a 
trustworthy general guide it should prove a god-send." — Neiv York 
Etening Post. 

The Election of Senators 

By Professor George H. Haynes, Author of *• Representation 
in State Legislatures." 300 pp. $1.50 net; by mail, $1.65. 

Shows the historical reasons for the present method, and 

its effect on the Senate and Senators, and on state and local 

government, with a detailed review of the arguments for and 

against direct election. 

" A timely book. . . . Prof. Haynes is qualified for a historical and 
analytical treatise on the subject of the Senate."— A'rz£/ York Evening Sun. 



HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 

S4 WEST 33d STREET NEW YORK 



BERGSON'S CREATIVE EVOLUTION 

Tfjinslated from tbe French by 'Dr. Arthttr SUttdiell 

8th printing, $2.50 net, by mail $2.67. 

"Bergson's resources in the way of erudition are remark- 
able, and in the way of expression they are simply phe- 
nomenal. ... If anything can make hard things easy to 
follow it is a style like Bergson's. It is a miracle and he 
a real magician. Open Bergson and new horizons open 
on every page you read. It tells of reality itself instead 
of reiterating what dusty-minded professors have written 
about what other previous professors have thought. Nothing 
in Bergson is shopworn or at second-hand." — William James. 

"A distinctive and trenchant piece of dialectic. . . . Than 
its entrance upon the field as a well-armed and militant 
philosophy there have been not many more memorable occur- 
ences in the history of ideas." — Nation. 

"To bring out in an adequate manner the effect which 
Bergson's philsophy has on those who are attracted by it 
let us try to imagine what it would have been like to have 
lived when Kant produced his 'Critique of Pure Reason.'"— 
Hibbert Journal. 

"Creative Evolution is destined, I believe, to mark an 
epoch in the history of modern thought. The work has its 
root in modern physical science, but it blooms and bears 
fruit in the spirit to a degree quite unprecedented. . . . 
Bergson is a new star in the intellectual firmament of our 
day. He is a philosopher upon whom the spirits of both 
literature and science have descended. In his great work 
he touches the materialism of science to finer issues. Prob- 
ably no other writer of our time has possessed in the same 
measure the three gifts, the literary, the scientific, and the 
philosophical. Bergson is a kind of chastened and spirit- 
ualized Herbert Spencer." — John Burroughs in the Atlantic 
Monthly. 

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS NEW YORK 



New Books Primarily for Women 



A MONTESSORI MOTHER. By D^nAy CaSdi Rsker 

A tiioroly competent author who has been most closely 
associated with Dr. Montessori tells just what American moth- 
ers want to know about this new system of child training — the 
general principles nnderiying it; a plain description of the 
apparatus, definite directions for its use, suggestive hints as 
to American substitutes and additions, etc., etc. {^Helpfully 
illustrated. $1.25 net^ by mail $1.35.) 



MAKING A BUSINESS WOMAR By Amme Shammm itomroe 

A young woman whose business assets are good sense, 
good health, and the ability to use a t3rpewriter goes to 
Chicago to earn her living. This story depicts her experi- 
ences vividly and truthfully, tho the characters are fictitious. 
($1.30 mt^ by mail $1.40.) 

WHY WOMEN ARE SO. By Mary R. Coolidge 

Explains and traces the development of the woman of lioo 
into the woman of to-day. ($1.50 net, by mail $1.62.) 

THE SQUIRREL-CAGE. By DoroAy CaAdi 

A novel recounting the struggle of an American wife and 
another to call her soul her own. 

"One has no hesitation in classing "The Squirrel-Cage' with the best 
Aaierican fiction of this or any other season." — CHICAGO Record- 
Herald. {yd printing. $1.35 «^/, ^Kwa/7 $1.45.) 

HEREDITY IN RELATION TO EUGENICS. By C B. Davenport 

••I'-e :: :l-e ::rT~:s- av:l-:r-::es . . . tells jnst what scientific 
irvr5-.:g^3.t;:n -as es-^:..sr.ei a'l "-: -^v far it is possible to control what 
the ancie-ts accepted as inevitable. "—N. Y. Times Review. 

{With diagrams, yd printing. $2.00 net, by mail ^2.16.) 

THE GLEAM. By Hdem H AlUe 

A frank spiritual autobiography. ($1.35 net, by mail $1.45.) 

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 

34 Wbt 33D S-nxMT NEW YORK 



APR 18 bW 



